


The Language of the Birds

by ImperialAxis



Series: Headlong Flight [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angst, Anti-Faunus Racism (RWBY), Autistic Ruby Rose (RWBY), Birbs, Dissociation, F/F, Faunus Ruby, Faunus Yang, Faunus summer, Jacques Schnee is abusive, Loss of Limbs, Multi, Qrow is a bad uncle, Raven is a good mom, Recreational Drug Use, Slow Burn, Trans Ruby Rose (RWBY), Vampire Blake, eventual pollination, nobody is straight
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:02:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 41
Words: 214,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25082074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImperialAxis/pseuds/ImperialAxis
Summary: Yang Branwen was born with wings that she never should have had. As a result, Taiyang kicked Raven out of his life, along with Yang. Eighteen years later, a series of unlikely events brings Yang, her best friend, the half sister she doesn't know she has, and the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company together into a single team at Beacon Academy.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee/Yang Xiao Long, Jaune Arc/Lie Ren/Pyrrha Nikos/Nora Valkyrie, Raven Branwen/Vernal, Ruby Rose/Yang Xiao Long, Summer Rose/Taiyang Xiao Long, Weiss Schnee/Blake Belladonna
Series: Headlong Flight [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974151
Comments: 460
Kudos: 423





	1. Prologue

###### Summer, 18 Years Ago

It had not been a pleasant experience to realize that the term morning sickness was a lie. Summer threw up in the morning, she threw up in the evening, and she even threw up in the middle of the night. Normally, she would take this time that she spent crouching next to the toilet in her simple one-bedroom apartment to call Raven, who coincidentally seemed to often have the exact same patterns of maternity troubles as she did. This night however, was different. Raven’s morning sickness was about to stop being an issue entirely, because just a few hours ago Tai had texted Summer to let her know that Raven was going into labor.

And so, when from her ever more perpetual perch next to the great porcelain throne Summer heard the distinctive combination thumping and sobbing of Tai getting drunk in her kitchen, she found herself very concerned for his welfare. Careful not to bump her six months pregnant belly against any of the sharp corners of the slightly shoddy bathroom, she pulled herself to her feet and made her way to the kitchen as well, figuring that she could throw up in the sink if she had to.

“Tai? Why are you here? You should be at the hospital.” Something was wrong, something was very, very wrong. But what could possibly bring Tai to cry in her apartment at-she checked her scroll-two in the morning when his baby was on the way? Well, his other baby, anyway. The legitimate one.

They had mutually agreed that it was a terrible mistake the morning after it happened. The worst possible series of coincidences. Raven had always been troubled, more than either she or Qrow were willing to admit. Sometimes it meant that they had fights, very bad fights, but they always ended up back together, and Summer was glad to see it. Even if she had always wanted Tai as well. That night however, he was especially hurt by something Raven had said, and he sought comfort in Summer’s arms as a friend, but they had had too much to drink and things escalated. 

Keeping the baby hadn’t been a mistake though. It felt selfish sometimes, but Summer just couldn’t let go of what little part of Tai she had gotten. They’d sworn not to tell Raven. That Tai would just be a friendly uncle to the kid. 

“I was there. Then she was born.” Tai took a swig of whiskey. Not a shot, a swig. As if it was a beer. Summer wasn’t even sure where he’d gotten it, she’d removed all of the alcohol from her house the day she realized she might be pregnant. “Nine pounds, ten ounces, one head, two arms, two legs...” another swig “and two wings.” Tai started laughing, hoarse, unhinged cackles of fear. “She’s a Faunus, which means that Raven cheated on me.”

Summer’s bright red wings fluttered, a nervous habit of hers. She didn’t know what to do or say. Her first instinct was to give Tai a hug, but this definitely wasn’t the time for that. It was impossible for two humans to have a Faunus baby, but it honestly seemed even less possible for Raven of all people to sleep around. After all it was still sometimes hard for her to trust her teammates after more than six years. “So what did you do?”

“She said that she hadn’t, and that she didn’t know how the kid had wings. I told her to leave as soon as she recovered enough to travel, and that I didn’t want to see her again. Ever.” Tai shrugged.

“Isn’t that too harsh?” This Tai was new to Summer. She had never seen him so hurt and alone before, his cheery and kind attitude completely broken by bitterness and betrayal.

“You know how Raven is. She’s never backed down from a lie, even when the evidence is right in front of her. Something this big, I think it would turn into gaslighting. I’d like to think she wouldn’t do it, but she might not even be trying to. I can’t let that happen.” Tai slumped in his chair, his chin resting on the table. “It’s more than that though. Working for Oz, dealing with Raven, _us,_ it’s all so much. I love her, but I’m so tired. She’s so tiring. This was the last straw, I can’t do this any longer.”

Carefully, Summer walked over to Tai and draped a wing over his head as she gathered him into her arms. “It’s okay Tai. You can relax now. I’ll make sure Raven leaves.”

###### Ruby, 14 Years Ago

“...And so when the town was abandoned to fend for itself deep in northern Solitas, Achillea quit the army and stayed behind. Her mighty scythe cut down legions of Grimm every day, and every day she would return from the hunt with a smile on her face. She smiled because she loved nothing more than the people she protected. For the rest of her life she protected the town and taught the people there how to defend themselves and live in the wilds, becoming the first huntress.” Summer turned the picture book to show Ruby the beautiful illustration of Achillea, her white robe fluttering about her as she fought off dozens of Grimm. 

“I’m gonna be a huntress just like her when I grow up!” Ruby pointed insistently at the picture, she wanted to be just as beautiful and strong and heroic as Achillea, something that made Summer quirk an eyebrow.

“Don’t you mean that you want to be a huntsman, like daddy?”

“No, I’m gonna be a _huntress._ Like you mommy.” Ruby pointed, smiling.

“Well in that case, I’m sure you’ll be one of the greatest huntresses ever.” Summer smiled as two pairs of silver eyes met, mirroring each other.

###### Yang, 10 Years Ago

“Uncle Qrow!” Yang jumped up into the arms of her favorite, grumpiest, and only uncle, her gold-tipped black wings fluttering behind her in excitement. They had grown to be a whole two feet each, two inches more than the last time he had been here. She proudly strutted about to show them off to him. 

“You’ve grown so much Yang! I bet you’ve gotten better at fighting too.” Qrow oohed and ahhed at Yang’s prodigious growth.

“Yup.” Yang popped the p. “I’m going to be as strong as you and mommy soon! And then I’m going to be the best bandit leader ever! Li-sensei is such a good teacher, I’m learning how to punch real good.” She made a fist and waved it around threateningly. 

“That’s great firecracker, I’m real proud of you.” Qrow carefully ruffled Yang’s hair. He got that it was precious, and he was careful enough that she let him. 

“Hey Qrow. How’s the old manipulative bastard treating you? Still running you ragged whenever you aren’t with family?” Raven leaned against the entrance to her personal tent, cooly eyeing the entire camp all at once. Watching over them all like a great guardian. 

“Yeah, nothing but the usual. Same shit, different day. More hard work.” Qrow shrugged. “I still say it’s worth it.”

“Eh, do what you enjoy, I guess.” Raven shrugged. “I can’t really complain, being in the humble little profession that I am.” She smirked. 

“We’re not humble, we’re the best in Mistral!” Yang jumped up and punched the air, making Raven chuckle. 

“Damn right we are kiddo. Strength is everything, and we’re the strongest bandits around.”

###### Weiss, 9 Years Ago

“...Death greets me warm, now I will just say goodbye.” Winter’s piano playing trailed off as Weiss stopped singing, both suddenly interrupted by the loud, jarring sound of a man clapping. It was their father, Jaques. 

“You have an excellent talent for singing Weiss.” Somehow, Weiss didn’t feel like he really appreciated her singing. “Tell me, would you like to sing for some of my guests this week? I’m sure that they would be most impressed with your performance.”

“No thank you father.” Weiss just liked singing with Winter, for fun. She had sung along with their mother’s piano playing at first, but mother hadn’t felt well enough to play lately.

Jacques frowned calmly at being denied. “Weiss, would you come with me, I believe that we must speak privately.”

“Yes father.” Weiss nodded politely and followed her father through the halls of the Schnee manor and into his study, he closed the door behind her as she walked in. 

“Who are you?” Jacques stood directly in front of Weiss, suddenly glaring down at her.

“I’m Weiss?” She didn’t understand the point of his question.

 _Slap._ “Wrong.”

Weiss stood, shocked and uncertain of what had just happened. Her cheek hurt. 

“You are my Weiss Schnee, my daughter, and you agree to what I ask of you. Say it.” 

“I am Weiss Schnee, your daughter, and I will agree to what you ask of me?” Weiss didn’t understand, he had asked if she wanted to sing, and she’d just told the truth.

 _Slap_ “Again.”

“I am Weiss Schnee, your daughter, and I will agree to what you ask of me.” Weiss repeated. The stinging in her cheek was getting worse, she didn’t understand, she did what he said.

 _Slap_ “Again.”

It continued, Weiss wasn’t sure how many times. By the time she left the office, there must have been a large bruise on her cheek, and it was covered in dried tears.

###### Ruby, 6 Years Ago

“Okay kiddo, don’t tell your parents about this, but it’s time to get some real scythe practice in.” Qrow smiled confidently as she led Ruby deeper into the woods outside of her house.

“Sure thing uncle Qrow!” Ruby drew Crescent Rose as her gold-spotted red wings shifted and spread open, excited to have her first chance to fight Grimm now that she had figured out how to keep herself safe with her aura. “Now what?”

“Now we need to find the Grimm. Come here, look, but don’t touch.” Qrow pointed out a spot of inky blackness resting on top of a tree root. “This is Grimm residue, they drip the stuff sometimes and it’s the easiest way to tell that you’re tracking a Grimm and not a regular animal. It normally disappears after a few hours. You have to be very careful around it though, never touch it, because if even a little bit gets under your skin it’ll spread through your body and kill you.” 

Carefully, they traveled further into the forest and managed to track down a small pack of beowolves. They managed to avoid being seen, and Qrow was able to tell Ruby about his plan.

“Alright. I’m going in and taking care of most of them, but I’ll make the last one go in your direction and you can fight it. Okay? I’ll be there if you need help, but I think you’re ready to fight a beowolf.” Qrow whispered into Ruby’s ear, and she nodded excitedly. She was so ready!

Without another word, Qrow rushed out from the bushes and started cutting down beowolves in a whirlwind that Ruby had difficulty following. Half of them were gone, then three quarters and he wasn’t slowing down. 

Then it happened. Three beowolves came running at her from the trees on the side of the clearing, Qrow turned as soon as he saw them but they were going to reach her before he did. Ruby did the only thing that she could, she raised Crescent Rose and prepared to fight. 

The wolf at the head of the three attacked as soon as it arrived, jumping directly at her, and Ruby stepped to the side and heaved Crescent Rose around her in an arc, horizontally cutting it in half with it’s own momentum. Before she could recover from her swing however, the second reached her and swiped at her side, though her aura protected her just fine. But then as the second ran past the third slammed its body into Ruby hard enough to break her still weak aura and send her skidding across the ground a few feet.

“Ruby! Are you okay?” Qrow was able to finish the rest of them off in a few seconds then he came running over to where Ruby lay, though she only had a few scrapes on her hands and elbows.

“Yeah, it’s alright. I just got a few scrapes from sliding.” Ruby reassured him, but he didn’t stop. Weirdly, her left arm was starting to hurt more than it had been a few seconds ago, so she turned it and looked at the scraped elbow. 

Beneath the torn skin faint traces of black could be seen. They wiggled slightly, and looked almost like veins, though as Ruby stared in confusion she realized that they were getting bigger, and the pain in her arm was getting worse.

“Oh no.” Qrow stared at Ruby’s elbow for a second before he hurriedly took off his belt and started tying it at the top of Ruby’s arm.

“Uncle Qrow, what are you doing, what’s happening?” Ruby was getting worried, she knew what was happening, but she couldn’t believe it, this couldn’t be it.

“I’m so sorry Ruby, this is all my fault.” Qrow was barely holding himself back from crying as he tied the belt as tightly around Ruby’s arm as he could, then put his foot on her shoulder and pushed her to the ground. “I need you to be brave for me, okay? You aren’t going to die, I won’t let you die.”

“I’m so sorry.” Qrow slipped Harbinger’s blade under Ruby’s arm slightly below where the belt was tied and above the top of the black lines that were growing on her skin. Then he heaved, and Ruby lost consciousness.

###### Blake, 5 Years Ago

Blake took one last look around the hotel room as she opened the window. There were a few things that she was leaving behind, some books, some clothes, her parents. Her duffel bag clunked heavily as she leaped gracefully onto the ground from the first story window. 

It was still strange to think that it had come to this. But her parents were leaving the White Fang, and she couldn’t. They’d gotten into a terrible shouting match earlier, and now she was going out on her own. Well, not entirely on her own, she was following Adam. 

Adam got It. He wasn’t giving up on Faunus equality, he was fighting back. Blake was determined to fight at his side. She didn’t understand how her parents didn’t understand that, or why they were running away from Vale. She had said terrible things to them, things she was already starting to regret, but she had made her choice. They had made theirs. 

Blake Belladonna didn’t look back as she slunk into the shadows of the city to stay with the White Fang, leaving her parents behind.

###### Raven, 2 Years Ago

When Raven had been kicked out of Tai’s life, she hadn’t known what to do. He’d given her enough money to go to another kingdom and get started there, but all she could do was fight. She’d ended up in Mistral and she’d looked for work, but Yang was still so young that she’d had to bring her daughter with her. It had gotten her harassed out of normal job interviews, and her application for a huntress’ license in Mistral was rejected with “animal fucker” written across the top in violent red ink. 

So when the money had run out, she did what she knew best, fight. She stole from the elitist Mistralian bastards, and somewhere along the way she’d started picking up every wounded stray she found along the way, forming a ragtag band of bandits. They were a second family, for her and for Yang. 

Yang was the light of her life. Raven has watched her grow and did her best to stay by her side every step of the way. Raven was so proud of her at every single step along the way. From the martial arts she had learned from Li, to her endless curiosity and blistering determination. 

When Vernal joined the clan, Yang had immediately taken a liking to her fierce, yet kind demeanor. Yang was calling her “mom” within two months, and within five Raven was calling her “my wife.” 

But now, it was Yang’s sixteenth birthday. Raven and the clan had taught her and raised her as best they could, but they were misfits, not experts. It was time for Yang to go out on her own and find her own path. Raven hoped that Yang was ready, but she knew that whatever happened, Yang was strong. Stronger than she had ever been. 

For one last time Raven and Vernal sat behind Yang, one on either side as they gently ran their fingers through the soft feathers of Yang’s wings, ensuring that each feather was properly aligned. Each wing was more than five feet long, when folded against her back they were almost like a deep black cloak, trimmed with gold. When she extended them they fanned out and formed a waterfall of gold on a black background. Yang stood six feet tall, and was two hundred fifty pounds of pure muscle and youthful enthusiasm. She was the most beautiful daughter that Raven ever could have hoped for. 

Mistral however, was a horrible, ugly place, despite its apparent beauty. It was going to hurt Yang, and all Raven could do was hope that she had taught Yang well enough that she could hurt it back. 

“Mom, come on. If you take any longer someone’s going to think you’ve gone soft.” Yang bounced patiently on the crate she was seated on as Raven and Vernal kept on stroking her gorgeous wings, despite their perfect condition. 

“Don’t be so dramatic Yang, we all know that I could kill every single one of them.” Raven flicked the back of Yang’s head. “It’s why we get along so well.”

Vernal just laughed and continued to attend to Yang. “Give us some slack, this is the last time that we’re going to be able to do this for a long time.” There was a sadness behind her smile, but also pride. 

“Fine.” Yang rolled her eyes, but she was smiling too.

“And remember, when you need me, I will be there for you. I won’t let you die.” Raven hugged Yang one last time before they left the privacy of her tent. “And there’s one last thing.” Raven went to her desk and unlocked it with the key she wore around her neck. She removed a single envelope, sealed with wax. “If you ever decide that you want to know about your father, read this. He should still be living at the address within.” 

“Thanks, but I won’t.” Yang still tucked the letter carefully into the internal pocket of her leather jacket, right over her heart. “I’ll keep it as something to remember you by though.” 

A scant thirty minutes of goodbyes later, Yang set out alone, with only a map, some rations and survival supplies, and Ember Celica. With one last bow to Li, she walked out of the bandit camp, and into the world.

###### Yang, 1 Year, 8 Months Ago

Yang quickly ducked behind a stack of crates as she heard an approaching security guard. They would never catch her though, they were just just humans, and her night vision was significantly better than theirs. She was done with Mistral. She had spent four months in this hellhole, and all she had to show for it was bitterness and bruises. 

No business wanted to hire her for anything that wasn’t degrading at best. Even Faunus friendly organizations apologized that they just couldn’t give her the space she needed because of her wings. The only ones that were interested were “exotic dance” clubs that clearly wanted to put her on display like a caged bird, it was disgusting. 

So she’d just spent four months living on the street and stealing to get by. She couldn’t even manage to get any mercenary work because all the gangs on the lower levels demanded a bunch of blood oath bullshit that she wasn’t enough of a fool to go along with. 

So she decided to stow away on an airship. It didn’t matter where the airship was going, any kingdom had to be better than here. She wanted to fight, her entire body ached for it these days, but there was no single enemy in Mistral, only suffocating hatred. She needed to find something to fight for. Like the clan is to Raven. 

There. With a quick dash, she slipped under the beam of a flashlight and into the cargo bay of a ship. She found a nice dark spot between two large crates and settled in, using one of her wings as a pillow. It was time to fly by night.

###### Yang, 1 Year, 6 Months Ago

A crowd of people stood in the decrepit warehouse. Every single one of them was Faunus, and it was amazing. Yang had never been around so many of her own people, even if it was a bit creepy that they were all wearing Grimm masks. They actually understood her though, just like the clan had. Everyone in the room was careful to avoid touching her wings, giving her plenty of space despite the crowd. Plenty of men and women complimented her beauty without singling out her wings or calling her a hot bird, or one of countless other crass terms. It was a relief. 

Ever since she had arrived in Vale from Mistral she had been trying to get into the White Fang. It had been surprisingly difficult, given just how incredibly obvious it was that she was a Faunus, but eventually she had managed to beat the information out of a local broker named Junior. 

None other than Adam Taurus, the local branch leader, appeared to speak at that gathering, and Yang was enraptured. Not with the man himself really, but what he was saying was exactly what she was looking for. She wasn’t educated enough about the outside world to lead, she needed someone to follow, and Adam seemed to know exactly what he was doing and do it for the sake of helping their people. She joined the White Fang that very night.

###### Weiss, 1 Year, 3 Months Ago

The night sky was vast and wide, like the emptiness in Weiss where it felt like she had once been. If she had ever really existed in the first place. She was afraid, afraid that there was going to be nothing left of her soon, just her father’s puppet. But there was another, worse fear, the fear that there would be something left alive, that it would howl and cry out as the rest of her walking corpse danced on the strings of powers she couldn’t fight. He had taken her mother, taken her voice, taken everything except Winter, but Winter was in the military, and she never got to see her anyway, so she might as well be gone too.

Or was Weiss the dead one? This captured voice, proudly displayed by her father like she was a caged songbird, had it ever been hers, or was the real Weiss trapped somewhere inside of her, and that Weiss was the reason that her heart hurt so much every time she tried to breathe? Was the scratchy beating of her heart nothing more than the futile efforts of a soulless body that refused to die?

Weiss stared from her balcony, looking down at Atlas below her. Did it really matter if she fell? Would she just get up on the invisible strings that kept her tied to this house, this “family,” or would she finally find a place that she could get a restful night’s sleep? Maybe she would just be able to fly away.

No. She stepped back, shaking her head, forcing the thoughts to go away. She had work to do, it was possible to escape, but she needed to focus. Needed to become stronger. Be academically perfect, convince father to let her go to Beacon for college, and then she would finally be able to breathe. And when she graduated as a fully licensed huntress with political connections, she would find a way to bring him down and do everything she could for the rest of the family.

This wasn’t the time to be herself, it was the time to be Weiss Schnee, the perfect heiress.

###### Blake, 1 Year Ago

Blake was perched in a tree, along with the rest of her squad, keeping one ear alert as she read under the starlight. They were waiting for the heat to die down after their latest mission, raiding a hospital for medical supplies. It wasn’t the best situation, but there were Faunus whose lives were going to be saved with these supplies too, and the hospital could easily just order more anyway, so it should be fine. 

There were eyes on her though, the bird Faunus in the tree next to her was very obviously staring at her. She was the new girl in her squad, promoted very quickly through the ranks for her significant combat prowess. Blake was pretty sure her name was Yang. She tried to concentrate on her book, but it was hard, given the very tall, very muscular girl in a catsuit staring intently from the next tree over. So instead she beckoned Yang over to her tree. 

“What’s up?” Blake whispered to her finely feathered companion, who now perched gracefully on a branch just slightly below her own. 

“I was just looking at your book.” Yang looked very nervous for someone who was just doing that. Not to mention that she had been staring for at least a minute. 

“It takes you that long to read a title?” Blake quirked an eyebrow playfully, to show that she didn’t mind Yang checking her out. Everyone knew that she was dating Adam though, so nothing was going to happen. 

“Yeah, actually.” Yang scratched the back of her head as she looked at the ground in embarrassment. “I don’t exactly have an education, like, at all. I only know the basics of reading. I can sort of do it on my own, but I’m really slow. It’s not like I ever have a chance to read books anyway, so...” she shrugged. 

“Oh.” Blake was actually surprised. She had met a fair few other Faunus who lacked education, but Yang actually seemed very intelligent, her behavior on the mission had been naturally tactical. It was surprising that she wasn’t educated as well. “Would you like me to teach you?”

“Yeah.” Yang smiled, and it was brilliant. “That would be great. I’d really appreciate it.”

###### Ruby, 4 Months Ago

With a thought, the cap of Ruby’s left pinkie finger unscrewed and flipped up to reveal a powered screwdriver as she disassembled Crescent Rose for the thousandth time that week. It wasn’t an exaggeration, she had been counting. Installing miniature power tools into the fingers of her left hand was probably the best idea she had ever had, even if it had led to some of the others at the forge calling her Freddy Kruger. The amount of time it took her to completely clean her baby was all the way down to a mere ten minutes. 

Sometimes Ruby’s arm still hurt, even though there wasn’t anything there to hurt anymore. It didn’t really bother her though, having a robotic arm was about a thousand times cooler anyway, and she might have seriously considered replacing her right arm too if she didn’t know that her parents would yell at her if she did.

The only real regret she had about the arm was her uncle Qrow. He blamed himself for it, even though he had saved her life. He’d kept teaching her to fight with a scythe, but he went about it way more carefully at the insistence of her parents. He was still an amazing huntsman, but he was really hurting, Ruby could tell. That there was nothing she could do pained her. 

Ruby put together Crescent Rose’s last few parts and stood up, suddenly realizing that she hadn’t eaten since breakfast and that it was now evening. She’d been practicing all day. Oh well, she’d intended to, and she was about as ready as she would ever be, so it was fine. Dad had probably made dinner already anyway. 

A smile grew on Ruby’s face as she stood up and stretched, shaking out her bright red wings with their specks of yellow. Now that her concentration was broken, she could definitely smell dinner. 

Downstairs, the familiar clatter of pots and pans was coming to a head in a way that did indeed indicate an approaching meal with her family. Summer was resting on the couch and watching tv, so Ruby joined her. 

“Hey sweetie, how’s your practice going?” Summer opened up a russet red wing and Ruby let it wrap around her as she sat. 

“It’s great, I’ve totally got all the muscle memory down now and it only takes three minutes to take Crescent Rose apart and three minutes to put her back together, I can do everything so much faster this way. Now that I’ve mastered my finger multitools I’m going to start trying to have that hard light dust chainsaw hand finished in time to get into Beacon!” 

“But Ruby, you don’t need a chainsaw hand. What you still need the most is endurance training. Let the chainsaw wait until after you’ve gotten in, okay?” 

“But what’s the point of getting my arm cut off, if I can’t be like Ash Williams and have a chainsaw on my hand?” Ruby flailed her arms, trying to convey the importance of how badass Ash Williams is. Sometimes her mom just didn’t get it. 

Summer laughed and pat Ruby’s head consolingly. “That’s what you said about the Pez dispenser.”

“It would be great for parties.” 

“You don’t like going to parties.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that it would be great for them.” 

“You are incorrigible, just like your father. Speaking of which...” 

“Girls! Dinner’s ready!” Tai’s voice blundered it’s way to them from across the kitchen, and Ruby headed for her food with a smile on her face.

###### Weiss, 4 Weeks Ago

Weiss panted, shaking imperceptibly as she sheathed her sword with a flourish and a smug grin in her father’s direction. She had won. Blood dripped down her face from the would on her eye, but she had beaten the Arma Gigas. Now she would be able to go to Beacon.

Something was wrong though, she could see herself speaking, but she wasn’t sure what she was saying, could see the blood covering her left eye, but she couldn’t feel the pain of the wound. Instead of being relieved and excited that her future at Beacon was finally secure, she couldn’t feel anything.

Limbs moved without her input, against it even, as she returned to her room. Her final performance was complete, but she hadn’t found what she needed, not yet. For the first time in years it felt like she could breathe, at least a little bit. She had completed the task set before her for the purpose of being impossible, all that was left was to wait.

Waiting was hard though, so much harder when her own future was nearly in her grasp. Would she even be able to recognize what she wanted when she reached Beacon? What did she want? To remove her father was the beginning of her objectives, and to change the SDC back to the way that her grandfather had intended for it to be. But what did she _want_? 

What in this entire world could possibly satisfy the desires of Weiss Schnee, who had everything? No, that was the wrong question, she wasn’t going to be that Weiss Schnee for much longer, at least she hoped not. So then who was it that was held within the cage in her heart? What did that person want?

Who was she, really?

###### Blake, 2 Weeks, 1 Day ago

“Wake up my darling.” A familiar voice whispered into Blake’s ear. “The time has come.”

Blake shot up from her sleeping bag and stared at Adam. When he fed he normally just helped himself without waking her up first. This was something special. The sharing of the secret to his strength.

“It’s time for you to join us. Wear this.” Adam put a strange white stone mask into her hands. It had holes for the eyes and nose, and on the mouth two large fangs were depicted.

Something about it disturbed her, but Blake obeyed, bringing it up to her face, where she found that it rested securely with no strap of any kind securing it. 

“Follow me, and do not speak.” Blake nodded, and Adam led her out of the White Fang regional command camp and into the forest, in the direction of the Solei Mountains. They must have walked for an hour before reaching a shallow isolated cave in the shadow of the mountains. 

It took Blake’s eyes a few seconds to adjust to the interior of the dark cave, and what she saw worried her. There was a man with red hair, wearing a white suit and a bowler hat tied up, bound, and gagged lying unconscious on the ground. 

Without hesitation Adam propped the man up against a wall of the cave and beckoned Blake to come closer, which she did. Then once she was within the reach of his arms, he drew an ornate obsidian dagger and stabbed the unconscious man in the shoulder, then wiped his blood-soaked hands across Blake’s mask.

There was the briefest instant of confusion and deep, shuddering tension, then spikes shot out of the sides of the mask and wrapped themselves around Blakes head, piercing it. For a long time her entire world was pain, and a searing whiteness that seemed to permeate her entire body. Then the mask fell off, and she realized that she was incredibly thirsty, and that she could smell the most delicious thing she had ever experienced, right in front of her.

Without thinking she pounced, and sank her teeth into the warm source of the delicious scent, sending the liquid pouring into her mouth, more, more, more. She needed more, so much. And it just kept flowing, eventually it slowed down but she sucked harder to make up for it, she needed every last drop, she was so thirsty. 

Not until every last drop of blood was gone did the fog in Blake’s mind clear, and she staggered back as she realized what she had just done. Adam had made her a vampire, like he’d said he would when he had first revealed his nature, but more, he had prepared this person, who was now a corpse before her, as a sacrifice for when she was turned. He’d _known_ that she was going to kill him. This random person, who hadn’t done anything to her. For all she knew he was some random human off the street.

Blake ran as far and as fast as she could, before she knew it she was flying through the woods. Literally. Wings of pure inky shadow extended from her back and propelled her forward, back to the camp, where she knew Yang was. She had to leave. Yet at the same time that she ran, she was standing before Adam at the cave, listening to him describe the changes that she was going to experience and the new needs that she would have. Unfortunately, as panicked as she was she couldn’t retain any of the information. She had left behind a shadow clone, and she was seeing through its eyes, even as she fled. 

As Blake approached the camp she dispelled the wings, feeling that she couldn’t maintain them for much more than the few minutes it had taken for her to travel the distance she had come previously. Somehow she knew that they and the way that her shadow clone continued to act and see weren’t reliant on her aura, but something else. She didn’t want to think about what exactly that something else might be.

###### Yang, 2 Weeks Ago

The White Fang was becoming an increasingly uncomfortable place to be. Everyone still respected Yang, after all, she was one of them. But the attitude that they displayed to Faunus who were just doing their best in places like Mantle was disturbing. Adam called anyone who worked for the Schnee Dust Company a traitor, and it didn’t sit right with her. She’d tried to talk to Blake about it, but she had gotten defensive almost immediately, justifying Adam’s words. It didn’t really seem like she was doing it because she believed them though.

Yang was no fool, she saw what was happening between Blake and Adam. The bruises, the hasty words of apology at the slightest infraction on Blake’s part, the way that she spent some nights just staring off into the fire in a world of her own. It was obvious that Adam was becoming increasingly abusive. Blake was in pain, and Yang was by extension. But what could she do? It was almost certain that talking to Blake about her concerns wouldn’t do much, and then if she told Adam he would probably use it as an opportunity to cut Yang out of Blake’s life.

That was a risk that Yang wasn’t prepared to take. Whatever Blake was going through, Yang needed to be there for her, even if Blake was the one who wasn’t ending the things that were hurting her. 

Which is why when Blake suddenly appeared out of the bushes that Yang had been searching for berries, carrying her duffel bag full of books, and whispering for Yang to run away with her, it was enough to bring tears of relief to Yang’s face. She still hadn’t found the place where she belonged, but she and her best friend could finally leave the place that was hurting them and so many others.

###### Blake, 1 Week Ago

“So, now what?” Yang shuffled and pulled her wings in closer to her back, trying to keep her distance from the noisy tide of humanity around her.

“I don’t know, I never really thought that we’d make it this far.” Blake had been fully prepared to fight the Grimm that she had no doubt she was attracting to the death, or Adam, if he had found her. It was better than being captured alive. Making it to Vale was beyond her wildest expectations.

“Well, I do know a guy we could probably pick up some merc work from. Thuggish, but better than nothing.” Yang shrugged.

Blake was having trouble concentrating, Vale was just so _much_ , especially during the day. Fortunately, she had already known that sunlight wouldn’t kill her, but it did hurt, a dull background ache that pounded in her temples. Hopefully it would get better eventually. Even under normal circumstances the smells, and the noise were a pain in the ass. Probably for Yang as well, though her hearing wasn’t quite as sharp as Blake’s. The countless cars and people kicked up a stench and a constant background noise that made her dizzy. For once the way that her bow muffled some sounds was appreciated.

“It would be nice if we could get more professional or official work. I’m honestly tired of being on the wrong side of the law. It would probably make it harder for Adam to get to us if he finds us too.” Blake looked around, then up. And there it was, their ticket to true independence, towering gracefully above Vale, like a kind and observant parent. Beacon Academy. “What if we tried to get into Beacon?”

“I don’t really think they’d like us, and how would we pay anyway?” Yang raised an eyebrow.

“They’re pretty generous from what I’ve heard, they like taking in people under special circumstances and giving them full rides. I think being a huntress might be a good idea, let me try to make up for some of what the Fang has done.” Blake stared at the academy. It was worth trying, it was the only direction she could think to move in. She’d flown away from both of her old homes, and now it was time to try to find a new place to belong. And a place to try and recover.

“Yeah, I guess that works. What do we do if we can’t both get in?” Yang tried to seem nonchalant about it, but Blake knew that she was the only person Yang had right now, even if they didn’t talk about why that was. 

“We get into Beacon together or not at all Yang, we’ll figure something out.” Blake gripped her best friend’s hand. She needed Yang just as much as Yang needed her, maybe more.

###### Glynda, 2 Days Ago

“Ozpin! What the hell is this? Why would you approve this application?” Glynda the folder containing all the information about the Beacon Academy application from a student named Yang onto Ozpin’s desk. “The only thing even written in the mathematics test is, and I quote, ‘I have no idea what any of this means.’ It’s only an algebra test!” 

“Yes, but according to her letter of recommendation she is an extraordinarily fast learner and a highly intelligent young woman. She supposedly was able to go from an elementary school reading level to a college appropriate one in a mere year, while living primarily in the wilderness. With the help of only a single tutor.” Ozpin rifled his way through the folder, pulling out the document in question. 

“In a letter from someone that she also wrote a letter for as well. It’s unreliable, and a conflict of interest.” 

“You do realize that their circumstances have resulted in the situation that makes that necessary, so you not? If she has what it takes she will pass initiation and make her way through her classes well enough. If not, she will drop out.” Ozpin shrugged. 

“Yes, that is the exact same thing that you said about the Arc boy.” Glynda sighed. “Why do you insist on operating like this?” 

“Beacon Academy is not like the others, we are not here for the sake of the military, or for appearances, nor as the sole source of law and order in a barren land. This school was founded for the sake of those who have nowhere else to go. I take pride in giving an opportunity to the downtrodden, the lost, and the damned. You should know, Glynda. Yang Branwen is very clearly one of those people, and so were you when you first came here.”

Damnit. She hated it when he was right. This school had already had to deal with two Branwens, who knew what a third might do. “Fine.” She pinched her forehead. “But if you would please riddle me this, under special accommodations, she put ‘some space to spread my wings’ do you know what that refers to?”

“I’m sure that we will find out in due time.” Ozpin smiled knowingly.


	2. New Friend, New Enemy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soooo, something some of you may be concerned about, given that this is eventually going to be a pollination fic, is the possibility of enabler, especially given that Yang and Ruby don't know that they're related, if they are. Is there going to be enabler? I don't know yet. I'll add the appropriate tag when I do. Are Yang and Ruby biologically related, and if so how, given that the offspring of two humans is never Faunus? That I do know, but won't spoil.

###### Weiss

One second. One single second in which Weiss stopped to appreciate the city of Vale and the grounds of Beacon. They were a welcome change from the frequent snow and clouds of Atlas. It was rare that she ever had the opportunity to see something so green as Beacon. She had wanted to appreciate it before making her way forward into initiation. But alas, no such opportunity was allowed her. 

Instead, the moment she began to relax, to fully acknowledge that she was currently beyond the reach of her father in enough ways that it might actually be safe to relax, some absolute fool barreled into her and sent her dust-filled suitcase flying into the air as they tumbled to the ground. Weiss watched it fall back to the ground in what felt like slow motion, spilling open and releasing multiple vials of dust that exploded as they shattered against the ground. 

The explosion of ice and fire that followed left Weiss’ aura intact, but her eyes watering as she attempted to squint through the resulting fog and shout in the direction of whoever was responsible for this mess. 

“You dolt! You bird-brained clutz! You absolute-“ Weiss was cut off by a very large amorphous black and yellow shape that stepped between her and the estimated location of the fool in question. 

“What the _fuck_ do you think you’re saying to her?” As the steam began to clear the shape resolved itself into a large, muscular winged woman who glared antagonistically at Weiss. 

“I...” Weiss trailed off as she stared at the woman in front of her. She wore a bright yellow sleeveless crop top under a short sleeved leather jacket that hung open loosely, revealing well-defined abs. Weiss may have drooled. Even under the jacket, her arms were visibly chiseled, just as much as her legs. An excruciatingly short pair of light brown shorts showed off thighs that could almost certainly break open a watermelon, while her black knee-high combat boots drew Weiss’ attention to said thighs. With a great deal of effort, Weiss forced herself to look her challenger in the eyes, but that did nothing to help the situation as bright red eyes outlined by a halo of fiery golden hair stared back into her own, sending a shiver down her spine. “Um...” For once, Weiss was speechless.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Thankfully, the woman seemed to mistake whatever it was that Weiss was feeling for fear, and she turned away with the belief that whatever lesson was meant to be imparted was taught. 

Now that the woman who had come to the defense of whoever had caused the collision was out of the way, Weiss realized that it had been another bird Faunus that she was shouting at, meaning that she had been accosted for her choice of adjectives. Internally, she winced, it hadn’t been an intended dig at the girl’s race, but rather an unlucky turn of phrase. Certainly, she disliked and disapproved of the violent behavior of the Faunus who kept attacking the SDC, but that didn’t mean that she was so uncouth as to insult them to their face in such a manner. 

Embarrassed in more ways than one, Weiss gathered the surviving dust from her suitcase and made a hasty retreat from the scene of the accident.

###### Yang

“Hey, you all right?” Yang crouched down and offered a hand to the victim of that white-haired bitch’s dust explosion. The hand that gripped hers was surprisingly cold, and she realized that it was a red and black prosthetic that went as far up the girl’s arm as she could see. 

“Yeah, just a bit shaken.” The girl pulled herself up and dusted herself off, shaking a pair of bright red wings. “I’m Ruby.” Ruby said, still patting down her ruffled blue jeans and smoothing out her flannel t-shirt. Then she looked up at Yang, and excitedly mirrored the same thought that had gone through Yang’s mind when she realized that Ruby had wings too. “Oh hey! You’re like me!” 

A broad grin spread across Yang’s face. She had almost never encountered other avian Faunus, even in the White Fang. It was always pretty nice. “Yeah, I am. Name’s Yang.” She held out her hand once again, this time in greeting. 

Ruby vigorously shook the proffered hand. “Thanks for telling that lady off, I don’t think I could have.” 

“Don’t worry about it, I’ve silently put up with enough shit in my life that I have no intention of letting anyone else do the same is all. It’s no big deal, really.” Yang tried to wave away Ruby’s praise, but the girl persisted anyway. It was admittedly pretty cute coming from the five foot tomboy. 

“No way! It is a big deal, you’re a total badass.” Ruby’s eyes wandered, full of admiration.

“Yang.” Out of nowhere Blake was at Yang’s side, gesturing towards the main hall. “Come on, we’re going to be late.” 

“We are?” Ruby looked at the wrist of her mechanical left arm and jumped in surprise. “We are!” Suddenly, instead of a girl, a cloud of rose petals zoomed off towards Beacon’s main hall at high speed. 

“Huh, neat semblance. Smells nice too.” Blake commented as she took a deep breath in through her nose, then wrinkled it regretfully. Now that she had mentioned it, Yang realized that she could faintly smell roses in the air. 

“How are you holding up?” Yang checked in on Blake for what may have been the hundredth time that day as they strolled to their destination. Even if Blake tried to hide it, it was clear that the last two weeks had been really rough on her best friend. Yang suspected that Blake wasn’t sleeping properly, if at all, and she seemed to have a perpetual headache that only got worse as they waited for classes at Beacon to begin.

“I can fight if I need to.” Blake shrugged, then seemed to relax a little bit as they stepped indoors, into the crowded main hall of Beacon. There must have been a hundred or so people, most of them staring expectantly at the podium marked with Beacon’s emblem. According to what little information about Beacon's qualification process had been released to the public, only fourty-eight of them would be accepted into the school.

“Nah, I’m pretty sure we get to rest the night before the actual part where we try to get in. Plus, free food! And shelter, it’s going to be dope.” Yang did her best to be jubilant about the upcoming time of rest that she and Blake would be able to experience. All of these were luxuries to them at this point, after two weeks of either roughing it in the woods without proper equipment or wandering through an unfamiliar city. 

As the two of them walked into the hall, a familiar and annoying voice could be made out prattling forth an obviously rehearsed barrage of vernacular. “The Schnee Dust Company is not liable for any accidents or injuries sustained in the use of its products, any such injuries are caused by human error and are a risk that is accepted with the purchase of any dust or dust product.”

Yang squinted suspiciously, suddenly realizing that she had seen white hair before. “Wait a second, is that girl Weiss fucking Schnee?”

“Yes.” Blake sighed. “But I thought that we were going to try to keep our heads down?”

“Nah, fuck that. Pay attention to whatever speech is happening for me, I’m giving that bitch a piece of my mind.” Yang stalked off, cracking her knuckles with righteous fury.

Headmaster Ozpin started saying something as Yang approached the target of her restored anger. She had been pissed about Weiss saying what she had to Ruby to begin with, but the obvious fear that had appeared in Weiss when confronted was enough to satisfy her that such a comment wouldn’t be happening again. This was different, Yang had never been to Atlas, but she’d known plenty of people in the White Fang who had. She’d heard about how Ilia had lost her parents in an accident at the dust mines and then been abandoned in the streets. She’d heard about the mines themselves, and the way that employees were as disposable as gloves to the company. And now here was a direct line to the people who ran the entire shitbag operation.

“Oi, Weissicle Sneeze.” Yang growled as she stood behind the oblivious heiress.

“My _name_ is Weiss Schnee.” Weiss turned on her heel, eyes narrowing into a glare as she recognized Yang. “You. What do you want?”

“What do I want?” Yang’s voice was either a low growl or a shout, she wasn’t sure which, but nobody else in the room seemed to be paying attention to her. “I want my friend’s parents to be alive again. I want the Schnee Dust Company to stop treating my people like disposable tools. I want to see your father swing from a rope for what he’s done to countless Faunus all over the world.” For the briefest moment, Weiss' eyes seemed to widen slightly.

“So? What does any of that have to do with me.” Weiss’ countenance was perfectly cold once more.

“So in the event that a spoiled brat like you does somehow make it into Beacon, I’m going to make your life a living hell, Schnee.” Yang knew she wanted to beat up this asshole, but of course that wouldn’t help her current life situation.

“Firstly, do not presume that I am my father. My previous comment was made without awareness of the nature of the girl that I ran into. Though I suppose such foolish anger is _typical_ of you people. Secondly, I assure you that I have already lived through a hell much worse than a brute like you has the power to create. And if you should try, I will easily crush you, both academically and in combat.” Weiss somehow managed to look down her nose at Yang, despite more than a foot of height difference between them, and with one final scornful scowl, she stalked off into the crowd.

“Huh.” Yang stared as Weiss disappeared. That hadn’t been as satisfying as she had expected. Mostly because she needed to restrain herself for the sake of not getting kicked out of Beacon before she could get in. She felt strangely empty though. 

Weiss had said that her life had already been hell, but that couldn’t be true. Weiss was a part of the system that had harassed Yang out of Mantle. Weiss had gotten everything she had ever wanted, and never had to deal with being stared at and joked about by thousands of eyes like Yang had. So why did she feel guilty about what she had done, and what she wanted to do?

“Come on Yang, time for our first proper meal in days.” Blake grabbed onto Yang’s hand and started to guide them in the same direction that most of the crowd was flowing. Blake seemed to show up out of nowhere more often than usual these days. She’d always had a natural propensity to stick to the corners of rooms, but lately she’d been clearly putting distance between herself and everyone else, both literally and metaphorically.

Yang’s stomach growled the same way that she had growled at Weiss. Okay, food first, then try to have a talk with Blake, again.

###### Blake

Getting to eat a bit was nice. Eating staved off Blake’s thirst, at least a little bit. It had been growing quickly over the course of the last week. Being in the sun as much as she had thanks to the fact that she and Yang were homeless had decidedly not helped either. Still, she couldn’t help thinking about how parched she was whenever she got a good whiff of someone, especially Yang. Thinking about how nice it would be to bite and just have a few sips of-

Blake shook her head. Nope. She couldn’t do that. If she told Yang about what she was now she would have to tell her what had happened that night with Adam. That she was a killer. She couldn’t.

So she would just have to put off drinking anyone’s blood for as long as possible, until she managed to figure something out. Yang was the only person Blake trusted, anyone else would probably tell someone about her, and there was no way in hell that she was ever going to drink from someone without their consent. Eventually of course, she would probably end up in the same state that she had on that night, but it was a problem to figure out once she actually had a life that she could lose. If it got bad enough, she’d rather let herself starve than risk hurting Yang.

Reluctantly, Blake pulled out her sleeping bag and an especially distracting book from her duffel bag. She didn’t actually sleep anymore, but she needed to pretend, lest she arouse even more suspicion. It was nice that it gave her more time to read, but it also meant that she had quickly run out of new books.Yang had offered to steal some, but Blake refused. Bookstores were a sacred place to her, she would never steal from one.

“Blek.” A familiar voice brought Blake’s thoughts back to the present. 

“Yang.” Looking at Yang really made Blake want to give her a hug like they had used to, but that would just make her feel worse, what with the way Yang smelled so good everytime Blake got close. Maybe it would be worth it though, she really wanted a hug.

“Talk to me? Please?” Yang’s gentle violet eyes pleaded, and for an instant Blake wanted to just let it all pour out. Everything. But they weren’t even in private, and she couldn’t risk the slightest chance of anyone finding out, so she barely managed to resist.

“I can’t tell you Yang, not ever.” Blake shook her head stubbornly. 

“Are you sure that not telling me isn’t more painful than telling me? It really looks like it is from my point of view.” Yang was nothing but concerned for Blake’s well being. She didn’t deserve it though.

“I’m sure.” Yang would leave if she found out, and then Blake would be alone. Not that she deserved to have Yang as her best friend anyway. “Hug?”

“Of course, c’mere.” Yang leaned over from her sleeping bag and pulled Blake into a big warm hug. She lingered for as long as she dared, enjoying the feeling of _Yang,_ the big, bright, warm, and passionate woman who had kept her going for almost as long as they’d know each other.

It wasn’t long before that damned thirst reared its ugly head once again, and Blake regretfully pulled out of the hug. With a thankful smile in Yang’s direction, she slipped her head all the way into her sleeping bag, and started reading.

###### Yang

It didn’t seem like a bad day for a stroll through the forest. It was cloudy, but not enough to threaten rain. Instead, the clouds had brought a pleasant chill of moisture to the dry summer air. Yang admired her view of it all as she stood on Beacon Cliff, waiting for initiation to begin.

Eventually, the teeming hordes of people arranged themselves to the satisfaction of the faculty, and Headmaster Ozpin stepped forward to introduce their task.

“Good day, future Beacon students, as well as the other fifty-eight people assembled here. Today is your initiation, a test of skill that will determine who among you actually proceeds through the entirety of Beacon’s esteemed educational gauntlet. Your task is simple, in the northern parts of the Emerald Forest there are some ancient ruins. Amongst those ruins we have placed twenty-four relics. Your objective is to return to Beacon with one of these relics, and a partner. Your partner is an essential part of your forthcoming training, you will fight together and rely on each other in the midst of battle for at least the next four years. As such it is incredibly important that your partner be someone well suited to you. Therefore, the first person you make eye contact with in the forest will be your partner, and please don’t attempt to cheat this, we will be observing you through strategically placed cameras and upperclassmen.” Ozpin chuckled at what must have been the sadistic joke that was his chaotic partnering system. Yang liked it.

“Aside from that,” Ozpin continued, “there are no rules. Best of luck to you all, and do make sure that you prepare your landing strategies.” 

A few people down from Yang, some poor confused blond guy looked around uncertainly. “Uh, what landing strategies?” She took a stance with her wings spread, preparing for what was to happen next. In the distance, staggered shouts of excitement and screams of fear could be heard, along with great mechanical clanks.

Yang shared an excited look with Blake as they waited for the line of launches to reach them. Blake looked a lot better than she had the past few days. She wasn’t constantly holding her head, or squinting at everything like her eyes were still adjusting to the light of day. It seemed like a good meal and a good rest had helped her a lot.

“Yeeeee-haw!” Yang shouted as she flew into the air at high speed, wings outstretched. She was too heavy to fly, even with this much of a boost, but she could damn well fall with style. It was invigorating to watch the Emerald Forest rush past her as she ascended and then began to gilde downward. The wind in her face really got the old adrenaline going as she looked around in search of Blake.

A bit behind her, Yang saw a black blur that was probably Blake disappear into the treeline. She was still quickly moving well above the treetops, but that wouldn’t do if she intended to pair up, so she started adjusting her wings to propel her further up, which would slow her glide quickly. As her attention turned more upward, she saw two people even higher in the air than she was. The first was a bright red winged blur that properly flew far ahead of her, trailing rose petals as they did. Probably Ruby then. The second was propelling themself forward using what appeared to be some sort of gravity dust manipulation technique, an intricate, black glyph depicting a snowflake hovered above and slightly in front of the person, greatly slowing their fall and propelling them forward.

The force of gravity eventually cancelled out Yang’s inertia, and she flipped to face directly towards the ground as it rushed towards her. In the last moments before hitting it, she fired off a few shotgun blasts from Ember Celica and tucked into a roll before popping up into a fighting stance and looking around for Grimm. None yet.

With a shrug Yang relaxed a little and strolled off in the direction from which she had glimpsed Blake. Once she was at a point that she was reasonably sure she was close to her best friend, Yang started to call out for her. “Pspspspsp, here kitty.” Like magic, two very angry cat ears, covered by a bow, popped up out of some bushes near her. 

“Really Yang?” Blake was obviously trying to be mad, but couldn’t hide the slight smile that ghosted the corners of her lips.

“Hey, it worked, didn’t it? We’re officially partners for the next four years!” Yang extended a wing and smacked Blake in face with it. “Wing five!”

“Silly birb, I don’t _have_ wings.” Blake couldn’t help laughing. “You big excitable idiot.”

“Says the gloomy nerd.” Yang grinned broadly at Blake. They still had it, whatever it was. They hadn’t been this in sync since they got into Vale.

“C’mon, we still gotta qualify to be partners.” Blake took a careful look around to check for Grimm, then pulled a compass out of her lightweight backpack. “This way is north.”

###### Ruby

Ruby loved flying, it was the best. The wind in her hair, the feeling of being borne aloft by her own power, it was fantastic. It was the reason why she had heavily modified her arm to be as lightweight as possible, even with it’s modifications. It meant that the arm was only a bit more durable than a human arm on its own, but she could channel her aura through it the same way that she did with a weapon anyway, so it was fine.

Flying did admittedly require her to use a little bit of her semblance however, and it got draining after more than half a minute or so, so reluctantly, Ruby let herself start gently gliding down to the ground, unfolding her sweet baby Crescent Rose as she did. As she slowed down and took stock of her location in the moments before landing, she realized that someone else was fairly close behind her and also beginning to descend to the ground. They were wearing an elegant white dress that was trimmed with snowflake patterns and a matching bolero. They looked vaguely familiar, but Ruby couldn’t seem to remember why.

Landing was easy enough, just a brief burst of her full semblance canceled out Ruby’s momentum nicely. As she checked her surroundings for any sign of Grimm however, she realized that she could already hear the sounds of a not-too-distant-battle. Quickly, she started jogging towards the battle, excited to meet the person who was most likely going to be her new partner. 

“Alright!” Ruby quickly came upon a clearing, just in time to see the girl she now recognized as the one that she had barreled into earlier do a backflip to avoid the quick bit of a king taijitu’s white head. She stumbled however, and as the black head reared up to strike, Ruby quickly landed a sniper shot directly in its open mouth as she started running into the fray. 

“You!” The icy woman spared Ruby a brief glance before launching herself up into the air on a spike of ice and slashing at the black head with a rapier in its moment of recoil from being shot. “I hope you’re better at fighting than you are at walking!”

With a shot into the ground, Ruby propelled herself over the white head as it lunged for her, then brought her scythe overhead and plunged it into the taijitu’s flesh a few feet below the head. “Don’t worry, we got this!” She was about to pull the trigger once again, but before she could the taijitu jerked violently and slammed her into the trunk of a tree, winding her and shaking Crescent Rose loose of its grip in the taijitu’s flesh. 

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you over the sound of failure!” Ruby’s new partner sent a blast of fire at the black head, preventing it from following up on Ruby’s momentarily stunned state.

“Wow, okay then Ice Queen.” Ruby used her semblance to dash downward a short distance as the white head lunged towards her with its mouth wide open, hoping to swallow her. Rather than her however, it got a mouthful of Crescent Rose’s blade as Ruby dug it into the bottom of its mouth and fired a round, splitting its lower jaw in two with the force acting on the blade and puncturing the brain with her shot. The white head went limp, but the rest of the taijitu continued to writhe and strike out, trying to at least body slam her and her partner. ‘What was that about failure?”

“We are still fighting half a king taijitu!” Ice Queen frantically rolled out of the way of the flailing headless half of a king taijitu, then counterattacked the intact head with some spears of ice that appeared from a series of white glyphs at her side. 

The king taijitu hissed violently as one of the ice spears pierced its eye. In a final bid, it whipped its entire body forward and started to wrap around Ice Queen, creating a perfect opportunity for Ruby. 

As Ice Queen tried to slow the taijitu by making a wall of ice around her, Ruby leapt forward, coming in for the kill on the last head. The taijitu’s movement was restricted as it focused its energy entirely on strangling a single target. 

One last shot sent Ruby rushing forward towards the last head, and in its distraction it was unable to stop her from cleaving it off at the neck, sending it flying off to dissolve in a cloud of smoke as the torso went limp and began dissolving as well. 

“I suppose that your skills are... adequate.” Ice Queen brushed imaginary dirt off of her impeccable dress. “Though I never did catch your name.”

“I’m Ruby!” Ruby rushed forward to greet her new partner. ‘What’s your name? You didn’t say before you got scared off yesterday.”

“My name is Weiss Schnee, obviously.” Weiss scowled.

“Eh? What’s so obvious about it?” Ruby put away Crescent Rose, satisfied that no more Grimm were oncoming.

“Not only am I the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, the single largest corporation in the world, I am also a renowned and well-regarded singer.” Weiss started to count her points on her fingers as if she had more, then stopped. “What kind of backwater have you grown up in to not have heard of me?”

“Patch! It’s a great little island not too far from Vale. Anyway, hi Weiss! I bet we’re gonna be great friends! Sorry about the whole crashing into you and making us explode thing from before though.” Ruby stuck out her hand with her friendliest smile.

“Friends? Unlikely.” Weiss looked at the proffered hand like it was dirty, which it admittedly was. “You are forgiven for your blunder, however. Particularly given that I made a blunder of my own, for which I apologize.”

“Oh, okay. Don’t worry about it. I bet you didn’t even know who you were talking to when you said it.” Ruby deflated a bit. Why didn’t Weiss want to be friends? They were going to be together for the next four years. Was it her wings? Ruby believed that Weiss was sorry about what she had said earlier, but that didn’t necessarily mean that she didn’t still think it. Back in Patch nobody had ever treated her poorly for being a Faunus, probably because her mom was the best huntress in the town. Summer had said that people in the cities could be different sometimes though.

Suddenly Ruby was very aware of her still outstretched wings. She pulled them more tightly against her back.

“We have a head start on the others, we should not waste it.” Weiss commanded as she started to walk.

“Uhhh, yeah, but we need to be going north.”

“This _is_ north you fool.”

“No.” Ruby tapped her left arm with a finger. On it a circular panel had flipped over, revealing a compass. The needle pointed in the direction opposite the one Weiss had chosen. “North is that way.”

“Very good then. That was a test. You passed.” Weiss spun perfectly on her heel and marched off in the correct direction, with Ruby following close behind.

For a while they marched in silence. Ruby wanted to say something, but Weiss was making her nervous. The heiress kept glancing not only at her wings, but also left her arm as they walked. Eventually, Weiss was the one to break the silence.

“You move your mechanical arm as if it were a part of your own body. How?”

‘But it _is_ a part of my body.” Ruby stared at Weiss in confusion. 

“No, it’s a machine.” Weiss stared back with mirrored confusion.

“Well, if you wanna get technical, yeah, I guess you could say that.” Servo’s whirred as Ruby’s left arm bent back at a biologically impossible angle. She sighed and absent-mindedly scratched the sweet spot between her wings. She had made sure the arm would make noise when she wasn’t in combat. “But I mean, I’ve had this baby for the last six years. At first we bought them from Atlas, but at this point most of this one is completely my own design. There’s almost as much of me in this arm as there is in Crescent Rose, cause I built her from scratch. So, nah, as far as I’m concerned, it’s just another part of my body.” Ruby grinned. “A really badass one.”

“Was that what made it a part of you, designing it?”

“Huh, I never really thought of it like that, but yeah, I guess. Losing my arm was an opportunity really, to sort of just take my body and do whatever I wanted with it. Same thing I did with the rest of my body really, just a different method.” Ruby pondered. Then her eyes widened as she realized what she’d just admitted to this person that she suspected was already judging her.

“The rest of your body?” Weiss raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t worry about it.” Ruby nervously waved away her slip of the tongue as best she could. 

Thankfully, Weiss let it slide. “How did you know what you wished to do with your arm?” 

“Mmmm, dunno really. I’ve always got a bunch of ideas for stuff, so I just sort of went with whatever’s cool. I’m still working on adding a chainsaw hand. The hard part was getting permission to actually make my own stuff. ‘You’re only fourteen Ruby, you’ll fry your nervous system if you try to use lightning dust as a power source. It’s too soon for you to know what you want, so we won’t let you make your body be the way you want it to be.’ That sort of thing. Fortunately my parents are great, so it all got worked out.” Ruby wasn’t really sure why she was admitting to all of this. Weiss’ questions somehow reminded her of herself, and she wanted to answer them.

“Hmmm.” Weiss stared at her hand, opening and closing it while deep in thought. Weiss spoke again, and it clearly wasn’t meant to be heard, but Ruby’s superior hearing couldn’t help but overhear. “If you can feel that a machine is a part of you, why can’t I feel like this flesh is a part of me?”

Wordlessly, Ruby stared at Weiss for a moment before continuing to walk beside her, now just slightly closer. Maybe she wasn’t as mean as she had seemed.

###### Yang

“Y’know,” Yang’s statement was punctuated by a shotgun blast as she finished off the last of the creeps that she and Blake had encountered, “I’m pretty damn shocked that I actually got this far. I totally bombed that math test.”

“But that was just an algebra test?” Blake looked at Yang with concern as she sheathed Gambol shroud.

“I still don’t even know what algebra is.” Yang shook her head. Math was definitely not supposed to have letters in it.

“Oh. Wow. I never knew that you were _that_ uneducated. I mean, that’s stuff that fourteen year-olds learn. Sorry, no offense.” 

“Nah, that’s just bandits for you.” Yang shrugged. It was probably going to suck to have to catch up on whatever she was missing when classes started, but she was prepared to put forth the effort. “Not like you need fancy math to steal ‘n’ sell stuff.”

“Well, I’m sure I’ll need to help you once classes start.” Blake sighed, the thought seemed to bother her, which was weird. Normally she was happy to teach Yang. Maybe she just preferred literature, it was her favourite subject. “Try not to rely on me too much, I’m sure there’s going to be plenty for me to catch up on too.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure I can figure it out.” Yang grinned as she vaulted over a fallen tree. Blake followed close at her heels.

“Wait. I hear something.” Blake whispered, and they both froze for a moment. “No, it’s just people, we’re good. They’re coming towards us from over there.” She nodded in the estimated direction of the ruins they were headed towards.

“Huh, early birds I guess.” Yang chuckled at her pun, and then chuckled harder at the accidental perfection of it as a familiar girl wearing flannel and a pair of bright red wings came into sight. “Oh hey Ruby!” Another familiar person followed shortly thereafter, turning her smile into a grimace. “Schnee.”

“Oh my gosh, Yang! We should team up! Wouldn’t that be awesome?” Ruby ran up to Yang and practically vibrated with excitement.

“What for? You two already have your relic, don’t you?” Blake studied the other pair’s equipment carefully.

“We got two so that we could use one as a decoy or a bargaining chip!” Ruby exclaimed. “But it would be way more fun to use it to travel as a group of four, that way we probably won’t get attacked by any people at all.”

“Wait, why would we get attacked by people in the first place?” Yang didn’t get what Ruby was talking about.

“There are more partner pairs than there are relics, and there isn’t a rule about not attacking people. People are going to take the relics from each other if they get the chance.” Ruby said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Now that she mentioned it, it was.

“I’d be fine with that. Yang?” Blake looked to Yang. She was about to say something about Weiss, but was interrupted.

“I would rather not work with you either,” Weiss anticipated Yang’s complaint, “ _but_ I am willing to do whatever I must in order to attend Beacon, and if that means working together with you for a few hours, I will do so. So long as you are able to remain civil.” 

“Hmmm.” Yang squinted at Weiss. She did seem like the disciplined, determined sort. Yang could put things aside long enough to get into Beacon officially. “Fine, I’m willing, but know that this is for the sake of myself, Blake, and Ruby. Not you.” 

“Awesome!” Ruby tossed a statue of a black rook to Blake, who smoothly caught it and secured it in her pack. “Birds of a feather gotta stick together, after all.” Ruby playfully elbowed Yang as they started walking.

“Damn right Ruby, damn right. Pretty lucky of me to run into you when I’ve just been _winging_ it this entire time.” Yang grinned back. “Speaking of which, did I see you flying earlier?”

“Yup,” Ruby popped the p, “that was probably me. I gotta use my semblance a little bit to have enough speed, but I can fly with a good running start and some elevation. It’s awesome.”

“Nice. I’m too heavy to pull off a stunt like that.” Yang deliberately flexed her arms a little, momentarily drawing the attention of all three of her companions.

“Yeah, I bet.” Ruby was blatantly staring, then she started as she realized what she had said. “I mean, like because of your big muscles, because you know muscle mass actually weighs more than fat does, not to imply that you have any fat either because it’s all muscle and muscles are great and-”

“Okay miss useless lesbian, I think Yang gets the picture.” Blake chuckled.

“Doesn’t mean that you have to interrupt her.” Yang thought that Ruby’s rambling was actually pretty cute. “I’m aware of the effect I have on both men and women, and I enjoy watching it.”

Weiss spent the rest of the hike through the forest in stony silence, while the three cool people chatted and got to know each other. The few pairs of other prospective students that they encountered were either scared off by the notion of fighting four people, or hadn’t considered taking relics from others, and they actually managed to get back to Beacon without any trouble. 

At the simple gates that connected Beacon and the Emerald Forest, Headmaster Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch waited expectantly.

“Congratulations, you four have just set the record for the speedies completion of initiation to date.” Ozpin greeted them warmly, taking the relics off of their hands. “I believe that I can expect great things from you.” 

“You definitely can Professor!” Ruby shot finger guns at Ozpin, who chuckled.

“That’s exactly the kind of response I’d expect from Summer’s daughter.” Ozpin gestured to the school. “The remainder of the day is yours to do with as you please. Team and dorm assignments will be announced tomorrow. In the meantime, feel free to explore the grounds as you see fit. All of our professors are around if you should wish to meet them, as well as food and sanitation facilities.”

Ruby and Weiss hurriedly zoomed off on their own business once they were back inside school grounds, but Yang lingered, looking around in amazement.

“This is crazy.” Now that Yang was in, really _in,_ the entire campus seemed different. This was _her_ campus now. She was going to live here for four years.

“What is?” Blake tilted her head curiously.

“That we’re here, that we made it. That now, maybe we can make a difference, the right way.” Yang just hoped things wouldn't turn out the way they had in the White Fang. That had seemed like the right way at first as well.

“Celebratory hug?” Blake opened her arms, seeing that Yang needed it.

“Hell yeah.” Yang scooped Blake up into her embrace, appreciating the presence of her feline friend. “Now come on, let’s get a late lunch. Seventh most important meal of the day, after all.”


	3. Team RWBY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> RBY make friends. W has a bad day.

###### Yang

“Thank you for agreeing to meet with me now that initiation is complete Yang, though this may take some time. We need to review your pre-existing knowledge and what remedial classes you will be taking.” Professor Goodwitch opened up a folder filled with sheets of paper. 

“Eh, don’t worry about it professor, I was just planning to work out and then relax for the rest of the evening. I’d rather know what I’m getting into sooner than later.” Yang kicked back in the chair offered to her, putting her feet up on Goodwitch’s desk.

A single eyebrow crawled it’s way dangerously up the professor’s face. “Do you need lessons in societal convention as well?”

“Nah, It’s not that I don’t know, I just don’t really care about that sort of thing.” Yang stared intently at her fingernails. Completely unaware of Glynda’s impending rage.

“Including not caring about showing proper respect to others’ property?” A clearly dangerous note creeped into Glynda’s voice, which prompted Yang to look up and realize that she was doing something wrong.

“Oh, sorry.” Guessing, Yang took her feet off of the table, instead turning sideways and laying sprawled across the two chairs in front of Glynda’s desk. “I’m used to just sitting however. This better?”

“Could you _please_ just sit normally?” Glynda rubbed her brow in despair.

“Well, no. I can’t.” Yang pointed at her wings.

“Ah, of course. My apologies. How foolish of me.” Glynda awkwardly cleared her throat and shuffled her papers around once again, even though they all ended up in the same place they had been before. “This is the tentative class schedule that I have drawn up for you. In addition to what is listed here I also expect you to come to my office for private math tutoring every Saturday at precisely noon. We will need to cover everything from algebra to college trigonometry in this semester, much of which should not be that difficult to instill.” She handed over the list in question.

_Introduction to Dust  
Introductory Weapon Crafting and Upkeep  
Survival  
Plant Science  
History of Huntsmen  
Grimm Studies  
Basic First Aid_

“I doubt that you need to start me off in introductory dust use classes. Other than that it all makes sense to me.” Yang pocketed the list.

“You have experience in the use of dust? I haven’t seen you use it once.”

“Oh yeah, I’m great with dust, I just haven’t been in any tight spots yet, y’know? Stuff’s expensive, gotta save it for the do-or-die.” Yang shrugged. “I got it right here on me at all times though.” She opened up her jacket, revealing the series of fairly large dust crystals she had stored in specially crafted pockets that let them stay in constant contact with her skin. There was fire, ice, lightning, and earth dust, one of each. She also had a single hardlight crystal, but it was more effectively concealed. Hardlight was damn expensive, so she kept it better hidden.

“You’ve been storing unrefined dust in direct contact with your aura at all times! How long have you been doing this?” Glynda positively screeched, her face twisting into a mask of horror.

“Uhhhh,” Yang had to stop and think about it, “six years or so?”

“And how many times have you blown yourself up?” 

“Not once.”

Suddenly, Glynda went slack, her glasses slightly bending as they were pressed between her hand and face. “You Branwens are going to be the death of me.”

“You know my mom and my uncle?” 

“Unfortunately. We were in the same graduating class.” Glynda sighed as she straightened herself out. “I’m still not entirely sure whether you three and anyone associated with you are all idiots or geniuses.” 

“I take pride in being an idiot savant, thank you.” Yang huffed.

“Either way, I will administer a test to determine your qualifications in dust use tomorrow. Furthermore, given your concerns about the cost of dust, please keep in mind that you are able to requisition reasonable amounts at no cost as a student at Beacon. Along with a variety of other everyday necessities.” 

“What sort of everyday necessities?”

“Sanitation products, most notably. There is a complete list of standard requisitions, and we will consider anything else you may be in need of, any medication is covered as well, of course.” Glynda began to put away her paperwork. “Do you require a scroll be provided for you? You don’t seem to have one already.”

“Literally all I own is what I’m wearing right now. Of course I need one.”

###### Ruby

It was obvious to Ruby that Weiss was avoiding her. They hadn’t even exchanged contact information before Weiss had gracefully fast walked away, leaving Ruby behind. She wanted to go to Weiss and try to help, it was obvious that the heiress was somehow distressed. But there almost certainly wasn’t anything Ruby could actually do, and it would probably be unwelcome anyway. So instead she just wandered around a bit. 

She wound up making her way to the locker room. Rocket-powered lockers were a fantastic idea that Ruby was shocked she hadn’t already come up with on her own, and she wanted to get as good a look at the guts of the lockers as she could. So naturally, as soon as she found her locker, she started taking it apart with the tools built into the fingers of her left hand. 

“Uhhh, Ruby?” A familiar voice broke Ruby’s concentration, even as she sat on the tile floor, completely surrounded by rocket engine parts. “What have you done to my locker?”

“Hey Jaune. Don’t worry though, this isn’t your locker, it’s mine.” Ruby affectionately patted one of the locker’s external metal casings.

“Are you sure about that? I definitely got assigned number twenty-three.” The numbered plate was long lost amongst the locker’s scattered guts, but lockers on either side of the hole where it had been did read twenty-two and twenty-four.

“No way, twenty-three is definitely my locker number.” Ruby pulled out her Scroll and opened up the school’s official locker app to show Jaune. And she saw it. Her locker number was thirty-two, she’d mixed up the numbers. “Oh, oops. Well, don’t worry dude, I’m sure I can put it back together when I’m done. After all, it’s not rocket science. It’s just like putting together some furniture from IKEA. And I’m a lesibab, so I’m inherently qualified to do that.”

“You’re a what?” Jaune looked confused.

“Lesibam.”

“Huh?”

“Girls.”

“Ohhhhhh.” Jaune nodded in understanding. Then he stopped mid-nod. “No, what does this have to do with putting together furniture? And... hey! This literally _is_ rocket science!”

“Nah, nah, rocket science is the part where you gotta do all the vector calculations and design stuff to be safe, this is just a bit of tinkering. And hey, if it works you’ll have the coolest locker of them all until I upgrade mine. Although if it doesn’t it might blow up. But that’s a risk I’m willing to take!” Ruby pounded her fist against her heart.

Someone new stepped into Ruby’s line of sight. “Ruby, was it? Jaune isn’t assertive enough to say it, but please don’t create the risk that his locker blows up.”

Ruby meant to agree to do just that, but instead her mouth just sort of hung open as she stared. She would recognise this tall redhead anywhere. It was Pyrrha Nikos, standing right in front of her, in all her tall, muscular glory. Meeting Yang had been one kind of gay panic, but Pyrrha was something else. Ruby had watched a lot of Pyrrha’s arena fights. Watched them very closely. Pyrrha had been the one who made Ruby certain that yes, she liked girls very much. And now Pyrrha was standing right in front of her. 

“Ruby? Uh Ruby, are you okay?” Jaune mercifully drew Ruby’s attention to him, allowing her to recover enough to speak. 

“Yeah!” Ruby gasped out the word, a little bit too quickly. “Don’t uh, don’t worry about your locker. I’ll put it back together, no special enhancements.” She started absent-mindedly putting the engine she had taken apart back together. 

“Sorry if I spooked you.” Pyrrha graciously apologized, even though it was probably obvious why Ruby had been stunned. 

“No! You didn’t spook me, I just... uh... girls.” Ruby awkwardly averted her eyes. 

“Oh, I see. I know that feeling.” 

“You do?”

“Yes, I’m actually bi.” 

“Hi actually bi, I’m Ruby.” Ruby couldn’t help it, her concentration was on reassembling the locker and her instincts just kicked in. Fortunately, Pyrrha laughed good-naturedly in response. “So how do you know Jaune?” Ruby hadn’t really expected Jaune to get into Beacon. Sure, he was a pretty cool dude, but he didn’t really radiate skill the way most of the people around here did. When they had been launched into the Emerald Forest she had been mildly concerned that he might die, based on what he’d said to Ozpin. 

“We’re partners.” Ohhhhh. That explained how Jaune was still alive and also a student then. 

“Where’s your partner, anyway? And who?” Jaune looked around expectantly, but the room was empty except for the three of them. 

“Weiss doesn’t really like me. She keeps avoiding me. We haven’t even exchanged contact information.” Ruby sighed. She’d thought that her combat partner would be someone who would end up being her best friend. Weiss didn’t seem interested in making friends at all. Ruby wasn’t going to give up just because of that, but it was a little bit disheartening.

“Speaking of contact information...” Jaune coughed, holding out his scroll. 

“Oh yeah! Great idea.” Ruby took Jaune’s scroll and put in her number. A few seconds after she handed it back, she got a message. 

**Jaune’dArk: dude  
RedLikeRoses: dude, nice work getting Pyrrha as your partner  
Jaune’dArk: what?  
RedLikeRoses: she’s like, amazing and strong and awesome and like, she just has so much “she could crush my dick with her bare hands, but she’s way too nice to do such a thing” energy  
Jaune’dArc: I don’t have a dick, but I do get what you’re saying  
Jaune’dArc: I don’t see her like that though  
RedLikeRoses: ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ your loss**

Ruby rolled her eyes at Jaune. What a fool. Getting Pyrrha as a partner was the best outcome Ruby could have dreamed of. She was a crazy good fighter, smart, pretty, really kind. The man had no idea how lucky he was. Sure, Weiss was really pretty. Her silver hair looked soft enough for Ruby to run her fingers through it for days, and her dress with its snowflake patterns was really pretty and she was so elegant despite being even more smol than Ruby was and-

“Uh, Ruby? You’re talking to yourself. Out loud.” Jaune waved a hand in front of her face. 

“How much did I say?” Ruby nervously looked at Pyrrha, who was still capable of looking at her, so it probably wasn’t too bad. 

“Just things about how pretty Weiss is.” Pyrrha smiled graciously. 

“Okaycoolgottagobye!” Locker reassembled, Ruby dashed off, far too embarrassed to continue talking.

###### Yang

Beacon’s gym was most certainly the nicest that Yang had ever been into. Back at the bandit camp she had had to make do with storing her weights in weights in the ground, and run normally for cardio. But Beacon’s gym was perfectly clean, and actually outfitted with things she had only heard of before, like treadmills. Oddly though, there were only a few people around, all of them as notably buff as she was. Probably because all of the upperclassmen were either not here yet or had already gotten exercise from covertly watching over orientation. 

There was only one person not already paired up with a spotter when Yang arrived. A rather short redhead in a pink, white, and blue jacket excitedly rushed up to her.

“Hey you’re fresh meat too! I’m Nora! I love your abs, they’re like, the perfect balance of well defined and yet somehow soft-looking at the same time!” Nora excitedly ran around Yang, looking her over with an appreciative eye.

“You’re pretty well built yourself.” Yang smirked flirtatiously as she eyed Nora’s musculature. She clearly focused on developing the muscles in her arms and back, and unfortunately Yang couldn’t see any abs under Nora’s jacket. “I’m Yang. Trade off on spotting each other?”

“Yeah! I got all excited about initiation, but it didn’t end up being that hard and so now I’ve got tons of energy to burn off from eating like five pounds of Ren’s pancakes this morning! Ren’s my BFF and my combat partner, they’re great and super chill, but they’re also the more speedy runs and jumps around a bunch ninja type, so they don't do weightlifting and instead they’re in the library looking at books!”

Yang was stupefied as, for the first time in her life, someone other than her assumed complete control of a conversation. Even during her own reps, Nora did not stop talking. Yang didn’t even mind though, the redhead’s endless enthusiasm propelled her through her workout routine with an easy smile on her face and motivated her to keep going even when she was starting to push her limits.

It was actually sort of refreshing for Yang to be part of a conversation where she was mostly just listening. Blake wasn’t talkative under normal circumstances, and had been even less so than usual in the last two weeks. Which meant that most of Yang’s social interaction had been her trying to coax Blake back out of the shell that had been closing her off a little bit more than usual since they had run away from the Fang.

Sighing contentedly, Yang stretched out her arms and wings, careful not to let them get close to the gym’s plentiful variety of workout equipment. “Which way to the showers?” 

“I think they’re in here?” Nora opened up the door closest to them, other than the entrance. It was a broom closet. “Nope! Maybe this one?” She then proceeded to check every door until she found one that led to a hallway that split into two gender segregated restrooms. “Gotcha!”

As it turned out, the shower stalls were rather small. Far too small for Yang to spread her wings and properly take care of them, and barely big enough for her to properly wash her hair. She grimaced as she stepped out, she’d need Blake help to get her wings back into proper condition later. Except that they didn’t have their own room yet, and there was no way that she was going to let someone preen her in public. But maybe...

“Hey, Nora.” Yang had just spent an hour listening to Nora babbling about herself and Ren. She liked the redhead, and figured it was worth giving her a shot, even if she wouldn’t normally let someone she had just met touch her wings. Desperate times and all that. “Would you mind helping me out with my wings? I’ll teach you how to straighten everything out.” 

Communal bathing had been pretty common in the bandit camp and in the White Fang alike. Anyone who got inappropriate was quickly ousted, and Yang was used to it. Nora seemed similarly adjusted due to whatever life she had led before Bescon. 

“Oh my gosh, that sounds amazing! That’s a close friend thing right? We’re totally going to be friends now!” Nora zoomed over to where Yang sat on a stool, both of them still naked. “What do I do?”

Cautiously, Yang talked Nora through how to take care of her wings. Nora seemed surprised by the extent of the complex network of skin, bone, and muscle hidden beneath the feathers, but she was a fast and enthusiastic learner. Up until Yang felt something that wasn’t a hand press very briefly against her back. 

“Shit!” Nora jumped back what felt like a foot away from Yang, who didn’t turn around. “Sorry, sorry! Mini-Magnhild isn’t really under my control, and I might sort of have a thing for muscular backs.” 

“Mini-Magnhild?” Despite Nora being unable to see her face, Yang raised an eyebrow. She didn’t really care, accidents happen. But _mini-Magnhild_? If Nora was saying what Yang thought she was saying, this was glorious. 

“Magnhild is my hammer that’s also a grenade launcher.” 

“So one’s a weapon of mass destruction and the other is a weapon of ass destruction?” 

Nora cackled at an impressive volume. “Hell yeah!” They shared a high five. 

As Nora got to finishing her work, Yang decided that yes, they were almost certainly going to be excellent friends.

###### Blake

Beacon’s library was the first place in all of Vale in which Blake found herself thankful for her notably enhanced vampiric sense of smell. Obviously, it was because of all the books. Books had smelled wonderful to her before, but now she found that if she took particular interest in a book, she was able to recognise and follow its distinct scent later. Never again would someone be able to get away with stealing a book from her.

The occasional human registered in the back of her mind as well as the books, but fortunately all of them were reasonably well groomed, unlike in the parts of the city she had been hanging around in with Yang as they waited for classes to begin. All in all, the only thing that could make her evening of reading in a quiet library any better would be having Yang share it with her. Which was contradictory, given that Yang was largely incapable of reading quietly. Instead she often chose to read over Blake’s shoulder and heckle the author, or say what she would have done better. The latter category usually involved a great deal of high quality, queer obscenity, such that Blake sometimes found herself wishing Yang would write her own book.

It would be nice, she thought, to spend another evening sitting in Yang’s lap reading a more than slightly cheesy romance novel together. Maybe falling asleep together in a tree, only to wake up and sink her fangs int-

Blake physically slapped herself, briefly disturbing the silence of the room. A few pairs of eyes quickly flickered over her, then returned to their reading. She hurried to the fiction section, desperately avoiding looking at anyone.

“Are you okay?” A voice quietly prodded Blake as she was in the middle of checking if any of her favourite authors’ new books were in stock here. Standing next to her was someone wearing a dark green tailcoat and tan pants. Their raven black hair had a single streak of pink in it, and they looked at her with nothing more or less than calm curiosity. There was a distinctly floral scent about them that Blake couldn’t quite place.

It took Blake some time to find the answer to the question. What did okay even mean anymore? It was all relative, after all. She was about to have a reliable source of food and shelter for the first time in two weeks. She didn’t have nightmares anymore, even if that was just because she didn’t sleep, it was nice. She sort of missed sleeping though, to be honest. Maybe she could still nap if she tried. As difficult as it was already becoming to deliberately remember anything associated with Adam, she was pretty sure that he had slept on occasion.

“More okay than I was three weeks ago.” That much was certain. 

The stranger nodded solemnly.

They stood there for a moment in an almost comfortable silence, observing each other.

“Are you going to check that out?” They gestured at the book in Blake’s hand, Ninjas of Love 9: Kiss My Katana. She had taken it down to confirm that it was the novel she thought it was, surprised that Beacon would simply put adult literature in their library. And maybe to reminisce over it.

“No, I actually already own it, I was just surprised to see it here.” Blake handed over the book with only a small amount of embarrassed fumbling.

“Thank you.” They turned slightly, as if to leave, but then turned back. “I’m Ren. My pronouns are they/them.”

“Blake. She/her.” 

The two of them exchanged a single nod. Then Ren left, seemingly a little bit more at ease.

After a few more minutes of browsing, Blake found a few books that she liked and took them to the library desk, but unfortunately she couldn’t yet check them out because Freshmen weren’t getting their student IDs until tomorrow when teams were officially assigned.

As Blake left the library however, she picked up the smell of Ninjas of Love, intermingled with Ren. Tracing it back, the trail didn’t even pass by the library desk. They had borrowed the book, in the most liberal use of the word, unacceptable.

Filled with silent fury, Blake tracked Ren’s scent through the halls of Beacon and back into the main hall, where she saw them sitting in a friendly group with Yang and a redhead that she didn’t recognise. As she approached them, Yang’s attention was diverted onto her.

“Blakey! Congratulations on making a new friend. I know how hard it is for you.” Yang grinned as she beckoned, her statement only partially teasing. 

"Yeah, cause you're an extrovert you dumbass. That's your job, then I just get to be friends by association with them, the best kind of friends." With a half-hearted roll of her eyes, Blake took a seat between Yang and Ren, then subtly whispered to Ren. “Return that library book in two weeks or else.”

Ren turned to look directly at Blake with a look of mixed amusement and approval. Their response wasn’t subtle at all. “I was already going to.” 

Out of nowhere, Blake chuckled at her own protectiveness of the library. Ren smiled as well, and it felt like an unknown tension had been broken.

###### Weiss

There was a dreamlike, shimmering quality to the air as Weiss collected the first exam of her advanced dust studies class. She strode up to her teacher with confidence and collected it, turning over the cover page to reveal that her grade was...

An F. Panic filled Weiss as she flipped through the pages, red marks on every single question blurring together in a haze of tears. Mocking laughter filled the room. This was impossible. She had gotten every question wrong. She was a Schnee, dust was her legacy, part of herself. More, failure was unacceptable, it would mean a fate worse than death.

As if on cue, her scroll rang, its tone reverberating through her head as a deafening clarion, tolling the end of her attempt at freedom. Shaking hands fumbled as she tried to retrieve it, but before she could even answer the call, her father appeared on the viewscreen, his face shadowed in anger, though conversely there was a predatory smile on his face.

“Clearly the influence of that animal has severely dull your senses. You will return to Atlas, and you will receive an education befitting a Schnee, far away from any filth. _If_ you can still be educated, after exposure to such an influence as that mangy creature.” Jaques’ arms reached through the screen, bearing countless strings that he attached to Weiss’ skin, even as he continued to speak. “After such a miserable and unbefitting performance, I believe that your brother will be the one to follow in my footsteps. Do not worry though daughter, I still have uses for an asset such as yourself.” With each string that was attached there was a burning sensation, followed by numbness, in her body and mind.

Weiss didn’t resist as the strings went taught, she couldn’t move at all, couldn’t even think. All she knew was horror as she was dragged limply through her scroll and deposited on a wide, flat, well illuminated platform, surrounded by darkness. Once again, the strings were pulled taught and she started to move about.

Across the stage Weiss strutted, walking exactly as she had been taught. A voice with no source filled the air.

“And here we have Weiss Schnee, the former heiress to the SDC. But today, she can be yours to entertain you as you please. She sings, she behaves, and she will happily be the perfect heiress for your legacy. Let the dowry begin at only five hundred thousand lien!” 

NO! Internally, she screamed, and Weiss’ entire body shook once as she woke up. It was the middle of the night, and she was surrounded by mostly sleeping students. 

Weiss gripped her pillow in terror, wrapping herself around it. She needed to stay in control. Maybe she could find a way to get a different partner. 

With a faint light of hope, Weiss went to the library and spent the rest of the morning before breakfast reviewing Beacon’s policies. There was nothing of use to be done though, partners were partners, and if either of them dropped out, both dropped out. The same principle applied to teams, there were no provisions for reshuffling. There was more complexity and nuance to the school's rules about interpersonal combat challenges than there were teams.

All of it made sense of course, challenges were always to be held in one of the school's official sparring arenas, and overseen by a teacher, usually they were planned in advance, but it was only a matter of getting someone who was willing to officiate. Strangely enough, they progressed to the point of aura very nearly breaking, which resulted in the occasional injury. Something that almost seemed to be a deliberate decision, given that the injuries were always minor, and policy dictated that they be left untreated unless they somehow interfered directly with learning or combat ability.

By the time she gave up, it was time to go to breakfast. Unfortunately, missing it wasn’t possible, as Freshmen were going to be herded directly to team announcements afterward. 

A frustrated sigh escaped Weiss as she returned the books she had been digging through to the shelf and made her way to the cafeteria. At least she had calmed down somewhat. Having a Faunus partner wasn’t actually the end of her education, it was simply something that her father would use against her if she gave him an opportunity. So she wouldn’t. 

Cafeteria food was, as expected, thoroughly inferior to anything that Weiss had previously eaten. The soggy eggs and questionable bacon were something that she had to force herself to put on her plate, after all, she needed the energy. 

As is to be expecting on a terrible day such as that one, the moment that Weiss sat down somewhere relatively distant from the noisy crowd, Ruby, Yang, and Blake took notice of her and decided to sit together, after much apparent cajoling from Ruby. 

“Good morning Weiss!” Ruby’s cheerful voice as she sat right next to Weiss was irritating. Today was not going well, and sleep deprivation left Weiss wanting nothing less than silence and an opportunity for a moment of peace. 

Subtly, Weiss slid a few inches away. “No, it is not.” A grimace appeared on her face as she attempted to swallow a bite of eggs. She began to apply a generous amount of garlic powder to her so-called meal. 

“I listened to a bunch of your music last night, it’s really cool!” Ruby was unfazed. She even closed the distance that Weiss had created. 

Involuntarily, Weiss’ jaw clenched at the mention of her singing. “None of that music is my own.” 

“Huh?” 

“The only song I ever wrote was taken from me. Do not call it my music.” Weiss once again scooted away from Ruby, only trying to get a few inches of space. 

“Oh.” Ruby slumped over briefly, and Weiss thought that the barrage of conversation was over. Then she perked up, seemingly immortal and unstoppable. “Was it Mirror, Mirror?”

“What?” Weiss kept her face carefully neutral as her heart raced with fear. Something about Ruby made her feel far too vulnerable. 

“The song you wrote,” Ruby moved just a little bit closer to Weiss, “was it-“

“Stay away from me!” Weiss snapped. She physically shoved Ruby away and onto the floor of the cafeteria. Every muscle in her body was tended, all she could think was that Ruby had been too close. There was something unspeakably bad about Weiss, she needed to be alone, everything was wrong, she was wrong. Broken. Hated being seen. Needed to keep people away. 

Down on the floor, Ruby had tears forming in her eyes. There was a moment where she shook unsteadily, then a burst of rose petals disappeared out the cafeteria doors. 

“Fuck you.” Yang’s red eyes dug into Weiss, filled with hate. Then Yang got up, presumably going after Ruby. 

The only person left was Blake, and when Weiss hesitantly met her steady gaze, she breathed a small sigh of relief. There wasn’t anger, or enthusiasm, mostly just curiosity. This she could handle. 

“Would you have done that if it had been me?” Blake’s voice was even, she seemed to understand. 

“Yes.” 

“Okay.” Blake nodded once. “I’ll go explain that Ruby was violating your personal space, and that that wasn’t a racially motivated sentiment.”

“Thank you.” Weiss was relieved that there was at least one sane person associated with these incredibly clingy and odd people that she kept ending up around. 

“Don’t mention it.” Blake seemed completely neutral as she left after Yang. 

Weiss was grateful, but also confused by Blake’s unreadable reactions and motivation. Why was a human such close friends with a Faunus like Yang anyway?

A single look down at her plate was more than enough for Weiss to realize that she wasn’t going to be able to eat anything this morning.

###### Yang

When Blake found Yang and defended Weiss’ actions, Yang had felt almost betrayed at first. But, she had to begrudgingly admit that Ruby had been rather touchy with Weiss, and that a response like that was understandable. As much as Yang distrusted Weiss, she trusted Blake more. 

By the time that Blake had found Ruby, (impressively quickly) and the two of them consoled her and explained the situation (not quickly at all), they were probably already late for the beginnings of team announcements. 

As expected, an impatient yet supposedly remorseful Weiss waited for Ruby at the entrance to the auditorium, wearing a scowl that easily could have been directed towards herself or the Faunus trio. For once, Yang gave her the benefit of the doubt. 

“Wouldn’t it be cool if we ended up in one big team together?” Ruby pondered. 

“Dust, I hope not.” Yang and Weiss said simultaneously. 

“No offense Ruby, I just don’t like stuck-up spoiled brats who also act hella racist.” Yang shrugged apologetically. It probably would be pretty sweet to be on a team with her, just not Weiss. Shame they were a package deal. 

“And I do not care for brutish thugs who act as if they were raised by bandits and smell as if they have been living in the streets for the last week.” Weiss pursed her lips in distaste. 

“But I was raised by bandits, and I have been living on the streets for the last week.” Yang took a great deal of pleasure in Weiss’ subsequent surprise. 

“Awesome.” Ruby looked at Yang with stars in her eyes. “You gotta tell me about that sometime.”

“What we need to do now, is go into the auditorium.” Blake reminded everyone. 

They quickly shuffled into the auditorium, just in time to hear the tail end of a team announcement.

“...Sky Lark, you will be the members of team CRDL, lead by Cardin Winchester.” A polite round of applause followed as team CRDL walked across the stage.

“Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, Jaune Arc, and Pyrrha Nikhos, you will be the members of team JNPR, lead by Jaune Arc.” 

“All right! Nice going Jaune!” This time Ruby enthusiastically joined in on the applause. 

Up on the stage Jaune waved to Ruby, only to get bowled over as Pyrrha gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder. Poor guy. She looked embarrassed as she gave him a hand up.

“Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Yang Branwen, and Weiss Schnee, you will be the members of team RWBY, lead by Ruby Rose.” 

As the four of them walked up to the stage, Yang saw that Weiss’ hands were visibly shaking. She didn’t know how exactly she felt about this. One moment Weiss was nothing but cold disgust and disdain that came across as being racially motivated, the next she seemed to be subtly on the verge of falling apart. It was incredibly frustrating, and Yang wished that she would just pick one already.

“You will not be subordinate to one of those animals. Unacceptable.” Weiss muttered it under her breath, her gaze a thousand yards away. Yang heard anyway. It was enough.

Without hesitation, Yang stepped in front of Blake and slugged Weiss across the face, sending her sprawling on the floor. “That’s it! We’re settling this Schnee! In the arena, right now!” Then out of nowhere she was levitating a few inches above the ground.

“ _What_ is the meaning of this?” Professor Goodwitch stepped forward, wearing a glare like a deadly weapon.

“Weiss said something unacceptable, something that does not bear repeating.” Blake answered. 

Out of the corner of her eye Yang could see Ruby panicking.

Goodwitch let Yang stand on her own feet again. “Miss Rose, is this true?” 

“Yeah.” Ruby slumped as she answered. She suddenly looked very tired.

“I see.” Goodwitch turned back to Yang. “Ordinarily this would be a detention for you, and a much more severe detention for Miss Schnee. However, if the both of you would prefer to settle it by fighting each other, I will allow it, given the need to resolve things as directly as possibly created by the fact that you are now teammates.”

“Very well, I am willing to settle this, though I hardly see how a one-sided fight such as this will resolve anything.” Weiss smugly readjusted her skirt.

“It ought to be enough to beat some sense into you.” Yang glared and pounded her fist into her open hand. Weiss had clearly made her decision. No more miss nice Branwen. This was going to be fun. “And if it isn’t I’ll just have to keep challenging you until you get the fucking message, bitch.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my side objective is to have as few cis characters as I can. How am I doing?


	4. Cookies

###### Weiss

“Begin!” Professor Goodwitch’s voice rang out clearly through the arena, signaling the beginning of the grudge match.

A decently sized crowd of about thirty people had come to watch, mostly intrigued onlookers from the team announcements. No doubt Weiss’ name had also drawn a degree of attention. In the front row of seats, Blake watched impassively and Ruby slumped in her seat for reasons that Weiss didn’t understand. Well no, she probably did understand them. She had hurt Ruby, most certainly. What she had said had been the unintended physical manifestation of what Weiss imagined her father saying. In other words, she was talking to herself, playing out the worst case scenario in her mind.

Not that any of her now teammates could ever know that she had such troubles. If she ever even knew them for very long at all. 

In the moment that the large viewscreen displayed both combatants aura levels appeared, Weiss tensed. She expected Yang to be the type of person that throws themself headfirst into a fight, especially given the circumstances, but instead she was just standing there, menacingly. Yellow gauntlets were drawn and covering her hands, but not even in any kind of fighting stance.

Neither fighter moved, instead they stared at each other. Based on Yang’s weapon, she was clearly a brawler, and of course it was obvious that Weiss was a dust user from the dust-filled chamber in Myternaster’s handle. Which meant that Yang needed to get close, and was most likely thinking about how to do so.

Weiss was the first to act. She created two glyphs on either side of her, and each one launched a ball of fire at Yang. As the resulting explosion cleared, Yang charged forward through the remains of the fire, seemingly completely unfazed. A brief glance at the scoreboard confirmed that, yes, she had lost no aura from taking the blast head on. Perhaps her semblance made her fireproof then.

Yang pivoted on her lead foot and brought her foot around in a heavy kick as she stepped into reach of Weiss. Her foot’s trajectory led to Weiss’ face, but Weiss simply leaned back far enough that the foot would ghost over her face. Too late, she noticed a stiletto made of hardlight extending from Yang’s heel. Interesting trick, putting hardlight dust in the shoe to extend your reach, but it would only work once.

Even as Yang’s kick connected in the way that she had no doubt intended and knocked Weiss slightly off balance, Weiss summoned an ice glyph at the place that Yang’s foot would land. Yang's body jerked awkwardly as she attempted to follow up, and Weiss righted herself, taking control of the fight.

It was simple to dance around the partially immobilized Yang and land a series of rapid stabs combined with as many ice projectiles as Weiss could create while multitasking, enough to lower her aura by about a quarter. 

In the middle of one such stab, Yang suddenly retaliated, dancing past Myrternaster’s blade as Weiss thrusted it, and began a series of swift kicks and punches as she slipped under Weiss’ guard.

What the hell? Yang should have been stuck for longer than that, she hadn’t used her weapon to break free at any point, Weiss had deliberately made sure that she needed it to defend herself. It wasn’t like Yang could have broken free with dust either, unless...

No, that was utterly implausible. Someone with no formal education could never be capable of a technique that even Weiss hadn’t yet grasped.

Weiss propelled herself away from Yang’s assault with a glyph under her feet, hastily guarding herself as she sized up her opponent once again.

Yang just grinned smugly, changing her strategy. “What’s wrong Schnee, can’t stand to see someone who’s better with dust than your daddy always told you you were?” As she said it, her fists ignited, confirming Weiss’ suspicions. Yang was channeling dust directly through her aura.

Rather than wait for Yang to come to her, Weiss lowered her center of gravity to take advantage of Yang’s significant height and relatively short reach. “You know nothing about my family!” Her father had never praised her skills, they were exemplary, but of course that was what was expected of her. It was nothing more than the absolute minimum for her to be considered to be successful. She created a time dilation glyph and rushed forward, enraged.

A successful blow slipped it’s way past Yang’s guard and across her side, but Weiss wan’t going to stop anytime soon. She made a regular glyph in her path and launched herself off of it, back towards Yang for another accelerated blow, and again, and again. 

Even as Yang desperately tried to stave off the rapid attacks, she started laughing maniacally. Her hair was starting to glow and brun as she seemed to steel herself to make a move. As Weiss moved in for her finishing blow, rather than taking a hit, Yang managed to wrap her arms around Weiss’ torso and completely arrested the smaller girl’s momentum, then body slammed her into the ground.

The air rushed out of Weiss’ lungs as she crashed against the ground with incredible force. Yang was on top of her and her first blow felt like a truck as she was hit with what was probably a semblance enhanced attack. She needed to get out of this position quickly.

Weiss gritted her teeth and summoned a lightning glyph that fired a bolt at Yang, who couldn’t move out of the way quickly enough. Some of the shock was transferred to Weiss by her nearness, but it was enough for her to throw Yang off of her with a small pillar of ice that grew up from the ground.

They were both low on aura now, and once more they paused, staring at each other. Electricity cracked around Yang’s gauntlets and her feet, but Weiss charged first, subtly creating a gravity glyph under Yang’s back foot. Rather than dodge however, Yang simply waited for Weiss to get close and then grabbed Myrternaster’s blade, sending electricity down it into Weiss.

If Weiss let go of Myrterrnaster she would be unable to fight back, so instead she began rapidly firing projectiles of ice, fire, and hardlight at Yang, who refused to let go. At some point one or both of them started screaming in rage. Even as electricity coursed through her body, Weiss kept fighting back for what felt like an eternity, but was probably only a few seconds. Finally the buzzer indicated that someone had won and both of them stopped, looking up at the scoreboard. Their auras were both below the limit.

“Tie!” Glynda Goodwitch declared over the arena’s intercom.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Weiss and Yang declared simultaneously.

###### Ruby

It was all Ruby could do to smile and nod and try to retain information as Professor Goodwitch led her and her new team to their dorm. She had spent nearly an entire day constantly surrounded by unfamiliar people, and she was so tired. 

“In order to accommodate requests for increased living space from one or more of you, we’ve assigned you one of the two larger Freshman dorms.” Goodwitch opened the door. Inside, their dorm was surprisingly spacious, with a kitchenette complete with a dishwasher, toaster oven, and respectably large fridge. A round table barely fit four chairs around it. There were also bunk beds, and four separate full size dressers. “The shower is also of above average size. Each floor of dorms has two common rooms, which contain stove tops and ovens. With every year that you advance, your dorms will become nicer. Your scrolls have been enabled to unlock your room, but there is also a lock that can only be opened from within.” She gestured at the lock on the inside of the door as everyone shuffled into the room, bearing their luggage. “Any questions?” 

“Where do we get food?” Yang was looking inside the refrigerator. It was empty. 

“A variety of fresh animal products are available at the school store, you also may have noticed that the nearest grocery store is simply across the street from the main docks. Shuttles travel between Beacon and Vale every hour, from ten in the morning to ten in the evening. In other words, if you stay in the city past ten, you will be expected to arrange for your own accommodations.” 

“What money do we buy this stuff with?” Blake had somehow already claimed the top bunk on the left side of the room. Probably because neither she nor Yang had had any luggage, save one duffel bag. 

“Have you two even read through the complete benefits and expectations of the scholarships you are on?” Goodwitch looked exasperated. 

“Well, no. The pamphlet we were given just had a website on it, and neither of us have scrolls.” Yang shrugged. 

“I see. I will expedite the process to ensure that both of you receive scrolls today. Know that the brief explanation is that you will have stipends to spend as you please, as well as an allowance applicable to the school’s store for both food and equipment. And of course, the school operates as a liaison for temporary employment. Many students will occasionally work as a bouncer or in a warehouse until they become Sophomores and begin to qualify to hunt Grimm unsupervised. You will also be paid for any missions that are a part of your curriculum. Any other questions can wait until after the week has ended, all of you should be much more well acquainted with the school by the time classes begin following initiation week.” With that, Glynda left. 

“Huh. Cool.” Yang flopped tiredly into her bed, the one under Blake. “Now what?” 

“Placement exams for people who think they belong in a more advanced class than they were assigned are in two hours. Other than that, we do whatever we do for fun.” Ruby shrugged. She was torn between flopping into the top bunk she had claimed for herself and unpacking so that she could have a snack first. 

“No, we need to establish guidelines for acceptable behavior as roommates.” Weiss took a seat on her lower bunk with her legs crossed. “I already have a great number of concerns about intolerable behavior. I am sure that the concept may be foreign to _some_ ” Weiss glared pointedly at Yang, “of you, but I expect my living space to be clean.”

“Hey, what the fuck? We just met, you have no idea how neat or messy I am! What the fuck is your problem!” Yang and Weiss quickly devolved into a shouting match that was giving Ruby a headache. 

“Stop it, both of you!” Ruby was not prepared to deal with this peacefully, this was too damn much to handle all at once. “Yang, clean up after yourself as much as a normal person, if you need advice on how to do that, ask me for it. Weiss, people aren’t always going to meet your standards, when they don’t, just tell them so that they can fix it, and don’t get mad at them. Now, because the two of you clearly aren’t going to get along anytime soon, just stop talking to each other! At least for the rest of today.” She needed a damn break. 

She’d tried to get a room to herself, having a guaranteed opportunity to be alone after interacting with people was a necessity for her. But no, “you’ll just have to get used to it,” they’d said when she’d requested it. “I’m sure you’ll have less trouble once you get to know them. It's good experience, you need to be able to get along with strangers in a group situation.” Neurotypicals. Just because she could do something didn’t mean that it was okay for her to do long term, and if it didn’t actually work out she’d almost certainly end up a complete mess at some point. 

Weiss and Yang were cowed by Ruby’s outburst at least. They sat in silence for a moment before going to their own business. Something with her scroll for Weiss, and climbing into Blake’s bunk for Yang. 

Relieved to at least have some quiet, Ruby decided that she definitely needed to unpack, then unwind. She hurriedly shoved all of her clothes into her dresser, then pulled out the cookies she had brought with her. One dozen special cookies in a green tupperware, and two dozen regular ones made with her mom’s recipe in blue tupperware. She’d used up the last of her secret ingredients and baked the special ones right before leaving Patch, just in case there was a customs check at the airport. 

The regular cookies went into the fridge and Ruby sat at the table with the special ones. She scarfed down one, then considered eating a second. Thinking back to what Weiss had said in response to her being the team leader, she decided that two was an appropriate number for the situation. 

After that, it was just a matter of waiting. No, she should make a note so that nobody would try to shake her awake or something while she was listening to music. _I can’t hear you over my music. Don’t touch me, if you need me for something, point a fan at me._ Another note was attached to the box of special cookies before they went into the fridge. _Ruby’s special cookies, if you don’t have permission just steal the regular ones. And for the love of dust, if you have to steal one, do not eat more than one._

It only took about five minutes for Ruby to deal with all of the business she could think of, so she put her headset on, and called her mom. She needed someone familiar to talk to. 

“Hey Ruby, how did initiation go?” Summer appeared on the screen of Ruby’s scroll. Summer was rather short, and very muscular, and her face was all rough lines, but even with an eyepatch covering one eye, she was clearly as kind to Ruby as she looked fierce to a bystander. The cockeyed grin helped. 

“I’m waiting for two cookies to kick in right now.” Ruby sighed. 

“That rough huh?” Summer flinched sympathetically. 

“The first thing two of my teammates did once they found out they were on the same team was fight a duel.” 

“It doesn’t really help with the now, but they’ll be able to get along eventually. You know, Tai and your uncle Qrow actually did the same thing on the first day that they met.” 

“You’re probably right. Waiting is going to be really hard though.” Ruby lowered her voice, hoping Weiss wouldn’t hear. “The duel happened because Weiss was being really racist, and I dunno, she’s sort of just really confusing.” 

“I’m so sorry that you have to deal with that honey, if I were there you’d be getting plenty of hugs tonight. And Weiss would not.” Summer did her best to hide how much of an angry momma bird she was being. 

“It’s not like that. She’s mean sometimes, but then sometimes it seems like she’s really hurt. It’s confusing.” Ruby really didn’t want to see Weiss hurt for revenge or anything. 

“Rae and Qrow were like that at first too.” 

“How did you get them to behave?” 

“Behave? Those two? I didn’t.” Summer chuckled. “But I managed to make them feel safe enough with me and Tai that they didn’t need to pretend to be angry in order to hide what they really felt.” 

“How do I do that though?” 

“You gotta just, not give up on them. Don’t let Weiss push you away forever. People like that need space, but when she doesn’t, be there. And make sure that you don’t hurt her back if she says something hurtful. It’ll probably take a while, but she’ll come around. Hopefully.” Summer sighed wistfully. “Rae ended up becoming my best friend, but it took a lot of work. It was worth it, but you need to take care of yourself first, okay? No pretending everything is okay for your team’s sake. You gotta stay healthy and pass your classes if you want them to graduate just as much as they do.”

“I promise. I’ll come visit Patch for a weekend if it’s too much.” 

“You’ll come visit _before_ it gets to be too much. And no masking, not when it’s just you and your team. I know you did a bunch of practicing this summer, but really Ruby, you’re wonderful the way you are. Your team will probably end up being your closest friends, you need to trust them.” 

“I’ll try.” 

“Good.” Summer blew a kiss at the screen. “I’m so proud of you Ruby. It sounds like you dad needs help fighting the Grimm in the garden though, so I’m going to help him. Goodbye sunshine.” She waved. 

“Bye mom.” Ruby waved back. 

Once she had hung up, Ruby put on her usual playlist for times like this. Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory, followed by Dopethrone, then In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend. Unfortunately, the cookies hadn’t quite kicked in yet, and her mind still had some time to wander. 

Now that she wasn’t doing anything, panic and doubt was starting to overwhelm her. She’d been doing a fine job, she was sure of it. That her body language and her facial expressions were right when she’d been talking to Weiss. So why weren’t they getting along. Ruby had done things the way people were supposed to interact with each other. Weiss had wanted her to stay away, but when Ruby was hurt she needed contact with people she liked, so it must be that Weiss didn’t like her. But why? She’d done everything right and been really nice. 

Ruby really wished that she had a room to be alone in. Just being depressed in the same room as others felt like they were judging her, even if they really thought she was just listening to music. She only had so much energy to spend on social interaction every week. Being alone sometimes was so important. 

_Ugh. No. Stop that._ With great effort, Ruby managed to make herself focus on the familiar sounds of Overture 1928. Eventually, she started relaxing.

###### Blake

Once Yang left to try and get into an advanced dust class, the only sounds in the room became Ruby’s occasional mumbling of song lyrics, and her less occasional giggles. Something that was rather contradictory, given that the few lyrics Blake managed to understand were things such as “Funeral planet, dead black asteroid, mausoleum, this world is a tomb, human zombies, staring blank faces, no reason to live, dead in the womb.” But hey, metalheads are weird people. Ilia had once tried to explain to Blake why The Dark Eternal Night was a silly song. She failed.

With Yang gone and Ruby distracted, it was definitely time to try to confront Weiss. Blake climbed down into Yang’s bed so that she was at the same level as Weiss and looked at the heiress expectantly. When Weiss was too absorbed with whatever she was reading on her scroll to take notice of her, Blake coughed pointedly.

Weiss slowly turned her head to look at Blake. “Come to judge me, have you?”

“Yes. Though I haven’t yet come to a conclusion.” Blake settled herself into Yang’s bed, resting her back against the wall.

“Why not?” Weiss sounded almost bitter.

“In my experience, bigots are usually people who pretend they don’t hate themselves by acting like they’re better than others. You seem more like someone who’s lashing out, fully aware that you hate yourself, and trying to keep others away. I could tell that you regretted pushing Ruby away at breakfast. Though I am confused by your comment from finding out that Ruby is our leader.”

“That...” Weiss sat in silence for a long moment. “Those weren’t my words. I never intended for them to be vocalized.”

“Then you should apologize to Ruby, though be careful, she’s a bit high.” Blake possibly shouldn’t have said it, but surely even Weiss would pick up on the meaning of the note that Ruby had left on the box of cookies in the fridge, so really, Blake was saving Ruby from needing to have this conversation with Weiss.

“She’s what!” Weiss looked up through the mattress above her head in horror.

“She’s an adult, first of all, and capable of making her own decisions.”

Weiss took a deep breath, briefly closing her eyes. “Is that sort of thing even legal in Vale?”

“It’s just pot, which is indeed legal.” At the age of twenty-one, which Ruby certainly was not, but Weiss didn’t need to know that. Besides, for all Blake knew, Ruby had a prescription.

“Then I suppose that I will refrain from flushing it unless it becomes a problem, or I have to deal with the smell of smoke.”

“No risk of smoke, she bakes it into cookies. You’ll see a tupperware of them in the fridge with a note on it.” 

“Somehow, the choice of confectionery fails to surprise me.” Weiss looked up again, as if she could see through the bed to look at Ruby.

“So you’ll apologise?” 

“Yes. I will.”

“Good. And don’t let this sort of thing happen again.”

“I don’t know that I can promise that.”

“And yet you claim to regret it?” Blake scowled.

“My situation is... complicated.” Weiss averted her eyes. “I am not entirely sure what is wrong with me.”

“Then ask for help.” Blake said. Ironically, she should take her own advice. But that was impossible.

Weiss just shook her head.

“If you change your mind, I expect that Ruby and I will be willing to listen.”

“I assure you, I will not.” 

“In that case, would you mind creating a slight breeze for me?” Blake stood up and walked over to Ruby’s bunk.

“What on Remnant would I do that for?” Weiss’ gaze followed Blake with disdain.

“I’d like to talk to Ruby, you need to apologise sooner than later, and she left a note saying not to touch her, and to get her attention with a fan instead. As far as I know, we don’t have a fan.” 

“Very well.” Weiss retrieved her sword from her luggage and returned to the side of Ruby’s bed. There was a clicking noise as the chamber of her sword rotated, and then a glyph appeared above Ruby, creating a light breeze. 

“Awww, but I was just getting to the good part.” Ruby sighed and took off her headset. She blinked rapidly and squinted as her eyes adjusted to the light after being closed for a couple of hours. “Oh, hey Blake. Hey Weiss.” Her speech was slower than usual, and oddly, she seemed less expressive than she had been before.

“I would like to apologize for the comment that I made earlier today. It does not reflect my own feelings.” Weiss stiffly apologised.

“S’okay Weiss, I can’t get mad at pretty girls anyway. A hug would make me feel better though, if you want?” Ruby opened her arms invitingly and yawned. Her facial expressions were staying oddly flat, even as her tone of voice conveyed affection.

“No.” Weiss scowled. “I have said all that I have to say.” She returned to her own bunk in an inexplicable huff.

“Blake?” Ruby turned her attention to Blake.

“Sorry, I’m not really a big hugger. Yang is though, you could probably ask her when she gets back.” Blake was definitely not prepared for even platonic contact with anyone other than Yang, especially given the thirst that inevitably appeared during said contact.

“Where is she?” Ruby looked around the room as much as she could without bothering to sit up in her bunk.

“She’s taking a test to try and get into a class.”

“Oh.” Ruby scrunched up her forehead, like she was thinking about something. “Do you know what the deal with me being the leader is? Lke, how do I even talk to people now that I’m in a position of authority? I didn’t even get how to talk to people before man. What authority do I even have? What does being the team leader even mean really? Should I be pretending I’m fine since I gotta look confident for y’all to respect me?” The barrage of words poured out only slightly more quickly than a normal person would talk, which Blake guessed was because of the weed.

All Blake could do was shrug helplessly.

“Yeah. This is gonna be a rough semester.” Ruby sighed and let her eyes close again, which Blake took as a cue to leave.

###### Yang

Yang returned from her test pretty confident that she nailed it. Sure, a few of the questions asked about what ratios to use in dust mixtures, which were things she had always just sort of eyeballed, but she knew them well enough to guess. And the rest had been safety or application questions, which she was excellent with. After all, she hadn’t caused a dust explosion since that time when she was eleven and she tried to eat some plant dust.

As Yang was about to open the door to her dorm room, she realized that she hadn’t been given a scroll yet. Which was what they used as a key. She checked the door. It locked automatically. She knocked. “Guys! I don’t have a scroll yet!” No response.

Suddenly, the door across the hall burst open and out of it burst Nora. “Hey! We’re neighbors! This school year is gonna be awesome!”

“Oh, sweet! Have you seen Weiss or Ruby?” Yang wandered over to Nora. 

“Ruby’s in here with us. We fed her ‘cause she got the munchies. It was adorable!” Nora gestured into team JNPR’s room. “Come in, come in!”

“She got the munchies?” Yang raised an eyebrow as she stepped into the dorm. The first thing she noticed was that it was indeed a bit more cramped than team RWBY’s dorm, though she couldn’t tell how much of that was because of the lack of bunk beds. It didn’t have much in the way of a kitchenette either. 

“Yaaaaang.” Ruby lay sprawled across one of the beds in Pyrrha’s lap, her limbs slowly moving around with no apparent purpose. “They fed me and gave me headpats, so now we have a demonic pact that I’ll save them in their time of need.” 

“Okay. Cool. What’s actually going on?” Yang looked around the room. Ruby was not acting the way she had been before. 

“She’s high and needy, so Blake dumped her off on us because she thought we looked like we had a bunch of huggers. She was not wrong.” Pyrrha smiled affectionately at Ruby, who stared off into space. 

“I guess what happened with Weiss really got to her, huh.” Yang sat down next to Pyrrha. 

“What _did_ happen with Weiss?” Jaune scratched his head nervously. 

“Bad stuff, sad stuff.” Ruby shook her head, then perked up a little. “We’re gonna be besties eventually though. I wanna know about bandits.” She pointed her body at Yang, apparently trying to relocate herself, but too lazy to actually do so. 

Yang went ahead and lifted Ruby up to set the team leader in her lap. Then she wrapped her wings around both of them, something that actually covered Ruby’s face. 

“Ohhhh, this is nice.” Ruby commented appreciatively and settled in, cuddling up to Yang’s torso. 

“So what do you want to know about growing up raised by bandits?” Yang was pretty sure Ruby was still paying attention, even if her eyes were closed. 

“You got raised by bandits? That’s so cool!” Nora interjected excitedly before Ruby could respond. 

“Weapons!” Ruby shouted out joyfully. “Tell me about how you got your weapon!” 

“When I was ten my moms let me pick my own weapon out of a big crate of weapons that the clan had taken from hunters. I picked Ember Celica because I wanted something that matched my hair and liked punching stuff.” Yang hugged Ruby closer to her, she really missed this kind of easy physical closeness. Blake hadn’t been receptive to it for a while, for obvious reasons. 

“Wait. You guys didn’t like, kill all of those hunters, right?” Jaune got worried. 

“Nah, we gave anyone with an aura the opportunity to surrender peacefully when it broke. Most people did. If we just killed everyone we probably would have gotten wiped out in retaliation pretty quickly.” Yang shrugged.

“That’s still actually kind of a bad thing to do to people.” Ruby seemed to suddenly realize that being a bandit wasn’t a glamorous matter.

“Have you ever been to Mistral?” Yang patted Ruby’s back.

“No.”

“Well, the people there deserve it, trust me.” Yang sighed, trying to push back the bad memories. “I learned that well enough when I left the clan.” 

Sensing her distress, Ruby wrapped her arms around Yang’s torso and buried her face in her abs. The last part may have been a selfish act.

“I’m from Mistral. The people there are very kind.” Pyrrha frowned.

“Yeah, but you’re a human.” 

“Oh.” Pyrrha covered her mouth. “I’m sorry. I... that was a part of Mistral that I only ever heard about from afar. Growing up as I did, I was very isolated.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not like there’s anything that you could have done. Sometimes being a good person despite your circumstances is enough.” Yang shrugged. “Any other questions about banditry though?”

Ruby unburied her face to ask a question. “Why did you leave the clan?”

“They’re my family, but they’re also just a bandit clan. I needed to be able to go and do my own thing. I really wanted to be able to learn more, I’m sure you guys have noticed that I’m not exactly well educated by now.” Yang chuckled. “All of them spent too much time out in the world, and ended up in the clan, but I was raised in it because my mom was the leader.”

“The leader!” Ruby’s eyes widened. “That’s even more badass than I thought!” 

“Oh yeah, my mom’s are both total badasses. Raven’s my birth mom, Vernal joined the clan when I was about five. I miss them.” Yang sighed.

“Aren’t you still in contact with each other?” Jaune asked.

“They’re bandits, it’s not like I can just send a letter to Raven Branwen at the Branwen Clan camp.” Yang shrugged. “It’s alright though. I think I’m probably going to go visit them over the summer. I haven’t really had the chance since I’ve just been wandering around for the last two years, but now I’d have something to come back to if I went and found them again.”

“What were you doing before Beacon, anyway?” Ren had almost seemed to disappear from the room until they spoke.

“Blake and I met about a year ago. We were working the same steady gig, but it went sour recently and that’s how we ended up in Vale.” 

“With how evasive you’re being, I’d suggest that you were in the White Fang if Blake weren’t human!” The need to say something seemed to have burst out of Nora. Yang chuckled as convincingly as she could at the joke.

“Nah, I mean, it’s not like it was legal though. And since it was in this kingdom, better to let y’all have plausible deniability.” That was a good lie.

“Yaaaang, carry me back to our room.” Ruby curled up into a ball in Yang’s lap. “I’m tired of people now.”

“I need your scroll to get in.” Yang didn’t mind carrying Ruby, but she was a bit confused as to why exactly she was suddenly tired of people.

Ruby shifted around awkwardly as she tried to reach into the pocket of her jeans and pull out her scroll. “Here.”

Yang scooped Ruby in one arm and her scroll in the other. She waved to team JNPR and headed over to her own room, where she eventually managed to get Ruby into her own bed, though Ruby didn’t want to let her leave.

“Stay.” Ruby tugged at Yang’s arm. “Cuddle.”

“I thought that you were tired of people?” Yang raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t count as people. You’re...” Ruby trailed off as she stared at Yang. “Different? I dunno, I like you though. Really warm, good heater.”

“I’m honored?” Yang shrugged. She was basically always down to cuddle cute girls. So why not? She climbed up into the bunk and wrapped herself carefully around Ruby. “This good?”

“Yeah.” Ruby slid on her headphones, and zoned out, probably not sleeping, just concentrating on something. Sometimes she mumbled the lyrics to whatever she was listening to. It was cute.


	5. Bite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, next chapter of Everyday Glory is coming more slowly than expected. I am too hyperfocused on this. I'm sort of sorry, but not really because I love writing this too

###### Ruby

By the time Ruby got tired of listening to music she felt like she had enough energy to want to talk to a person again. Unfortunately, Yang had gone off somewhere with Blake a little while ago, and Weiss was still off doing whatever it was that she had decided to do in her weird frustration. The dorm room felt way too empty, and Weiss had made sure that things weren’t anywhere near messy enough to make it feel like a home to Ruby, so she asked Jaune to come over.

“So like, you do the mara-ju-onnas?” Jaune sat awkwardly in a chair as Ruby sprawled out on Yang’s bed, still riding the tail end of her high enough that she didn’t really care about any sort of social implications or rules.

Ruby threw herself around Yang’s bed as she shook with uncontrollable laughter, every bit as loud as she would be if she were sober right then. After a long series of gasps for breath, she tried to calm down and start breathing again with tears in her eyes. “Dude. You’re killing me.”

“Did I say something wrong?” Jaune’s voice was perfectly innocent, and it only made Ruby laugh harder. She had no idea if he was serious, and if he was she might actually die laughing.

It took a few minutes and many hurried gasps of air for Ruby to be able to speak again. “Please tell me that was a joke.”

“But it wasn’t?”

“Geez dude.” Ruby had to deliberately think about unfunny things, like Grimm. Right, Grimm exist. That’s pretty depressing. “It’s pronounced marijuana.”

“Oh, okay. Sorry, I really don’t know much about it. I’m sort of a country kid. Like, the strict part of the country.” Even Ruby could tell that Jaune felt awkward.

“Hey, I’m over here laughing. Sorta at you actually. Sorry.”

“It’s fine, I’m used to being laughed at.” Jaune chuckled nervously.

“Janue, I’m really sorry. Seriously, you’re awesome, there’s nothing wrong with not knowing something if you’ve never had the chance to learn. Like, the fact that we can have a conversation at all is crazy. I’ve literally never been able to get along with people that aren’t either introduced to me by someone I already know or just happen to spend a bunch of time around and learn has similar interests with me.” It was really funny when people said stuff like that though. “So like, you’re a super cool dude, and we’re basically friends forever now because that’s just how I roll.”

“Cool.” Jaune smiled and nodded. He was about to say something else, but was interrupted by the sound of the door being unlocked. 

“Who is this?” Weiss stepped in as primly as ever, carrying only her dust rapier at her hip as she gave Jaune a suspicious side eye.

“Helloooo, I’m Jaune Arc, at your service.” Jaune stood up and swaggered over to Weiss. “And what’s your name, Snow Angel?”

“My name is Weiss Schnee.” Weiss glared at Jaune dangerously. 

Nodding, Jaune ran his hand through his hair with confidence that even Ruby knew was completely unjustified. “How would you like to go on a date with me? This evening? I know this nice place called the Beacon caf-”

A glyph suddenly appeared beneath Jaune’s feet, and he flew out the open door into the hall. Weiss slammed it shut. “Why was that man in this room?”

“We were hanging out.” Ruby pouted. 

“Why on Remnant would you do such a thing?” 

“Cause he’s my friend.”

“Inconceivable.”

“He’s great, when he’s not doing a bad job of hitting on someone, apparently. I’ll talk to him about that.” Ruby shrugged and smiled hopefully at Weiss. “All of team JNPR are awesome actually, they fed me and gave me headpats before. They got the dorm just across from us.”

“Oh yes, the team with Pyrrha Nikhos on it.” Weiss suddenly turned her head, seeming to look through the door and across the hallway. “Intriguing.” 

“You wanna sit with them at dinner?” Ruby flopped onto her stomach and let her wings spread across Yang’s bed. 

“I would rather not give Jaune any... encouragement.” Weiss still seemed tempted.

“I mean, are you totally disinterested because you’re gay?” 

“What!” Weiss nearly choked on absolutely nothing.

“Because if you are and you just tell him he’ll totally respect that and also not tell anybody else if you aren’t okay with it. He’s trustworthy.” 

“How long have you known him?”

“Uh, I think it’s been a day since we came here on airships, right? Time is weird. So, a day.”

“Why would you trust someone that you’ve known for a day?”

“I’ve just sort of got a feeling for this stuff.” Ruby shrugged. “I get attached to people pretty quickly if I like them, same with Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, Blake, Yang, and you.” Sometimes she wondered if it was just her, or if it was an actual autistic thing. Except that those were the same thing.

“Me? Why would you trust me?” Weiss’ lips curled ever so slightly downward.

“I just do. I sort of have to, since we’re on the same team, but mostly I just do.” 

“Even after what I said before?”

“That hurt...” Ruby burrowed a little deeper into the embrace of Yang’s bed in response to the memory. “But you apologized, so it’s okay.”

“You...” Weiss just stared, and Ruby could almost feel her trying to make sense of what she was saying. “You are incomprehensible.”

“Don’t worry.” Ruby smiled at Weiss. “I’m just gonna love you unconditionally, okay?”

“No, after further consideration I have determined that incomprehensible is not the correct word. You are insane, completely and utterly divorced from reality.” Weiss took a deep breath. “Furthermore, it is simply impossible.”

“Impossible? What’s impossible about that?”

“Nothing that is of any concern to you.” Weiss put an end to the conversation. There was a moment of silence, and then Ruby’s stomach grumbled.

“Okay. I’m going to dinner, want to come with?”

“Very well, though we are not sitting too near to team JNPR.”

###### Yang

“Team-building exercises? I thought those were just some sort of weird stereotype, not a thing actual people willingly put themselves through.” Yang looked disdainfully at Professor Peach, who had just explained that the first day of the week set aside to acquaint freshmen with the school was going to be dedicated to learning to work together as a team and get along with each other. And that they were starting with team-building exercises. 

“I’m pretty sure that people _don’t_ willingly put themselves through it.” Blake gestured to the other teams in the room, most of whom were just as clearly disdainful as Yang about the situation.

“Well I think that they’re going to be a lot of fun, and a great opportunity to get to know each other better.” Ruby put her hands on her hips and nodded confidently.

“I can hear every single one of you grumbling.” The pair of tanuki ears set atop Professor Peach’s head twitched pointedly, and the room reluctantly fell silent. “Now, we will begin with trust falls.” She picked a pile of simple blindfolds up from her podium and began to distribute two to each team.

“Kinky. Reminds me of that one time in the woods.” Yang eyed the blindfolds and nudged Blake playfully. She’d once accidentally seen Blake naked, tied to a tree, and blindfolded while Adam-

Oh, on second thought, probably not the best thing to bring up. Fun mental image though.

“Please,” Blake snorted, “blindfolds are practically as vanilla as the missionary position.”

“I suppose you’d know, wouldn’t you?”

“So, are you two like, dating?” Ruby looked at Yang with a funny look on her face. 

“What? No, not at all, never have. We’re just really close.” Yang laughed at the idea. Blake probably wasn’t going to date anyone anytime soon anyway. That thought was less amusing. 

Cheap plastic chairs were shuffled to the sides of the small event room, and people started to pair up with their blindfolds. Naturally, Yang stood next to Blake. 

“Nope.” Ruby said as she saw what Yang was doing. “It’s you and Weiss, me and Blake first. You two already trust each other, there’s no reason to have you do this.” 

“But I don’t trust Weiss to catch me.” Yang pleaded her case. 

“That’s the point. We’re doing this to build trust, and you two need some of that. A lot of it.” Ruby made a gesture that vaguely implied a very large sphere. “Like, so much. If trust was water you’d be Vacuo.” 

“She’s not wrong. Weiss isn’t exactly evil, and you need to learn to get along with her well enough to fight together.” Blake shrugged apologetically under Yang’s resulting glare. 

“Betrayed by my oldest friend.” Yang laid the back of her hand across her forehead and looked up at the ceiling dramatically. “Oh woe is me, when in such times as these, friends cannot be found even tied to trees.” 

“Just put on the damn blindfold.” Weiss attempted to thrust the blindfold into Yang’s hands. 

“Absolutely not. You’re going first.” Yang crossed her arms. She intended to avoid depending on Weiss as much as physically possible.”

“Very well.” Weiss put on the blindfold, though she maintained stern eye contact with Yang as she did. 

With Weiss’ eyes now covered, Yang let loose the malicious grin she had been holding back. She shot a thumbs-up at Blake, who actually shook her head, silently discouraging Yang. Whatever, bad ideas are a part of her brand, besides, who in the room could possibly deserve this more than Weiss?

Yang walked around to stand a few feet behind Weiss. “Okay, I’m ready to catch a falling snowflake.”

There was a rolling of Weiss’ eyes that Yang could feel despite not even being able to her face. Then Weiss let herself fall back, and Yang casually sidestepped her, letting her fall to the ground with a light thud. It probably hurt a little, but she’d be fine with her aura. Yang snickered, loudly.

“I don’t know what I expected. It was an act of the purest optimism to have attempted this in the first place.” Weiss griped. She stood up and took off the blindfold. “We are done here.” 

“No, Weiss, wait.” Ruby caught Weiss’ hand as she was walking away, something that caused her to immediately wrench away and face Ruby, her face twisted in... something. For a moment, it seemed to Yang as if Weiss was about to do something drastic.

“What have I said about touching me?” Weiss restrained herself to glaring at Ruby wrathfully.

“I’m sorry.” Ruby shrunk in on herself, holding her hands up apologetically. “I forgot, but I’m trying, I really am. It takes time for me to remember these things. The only reason I haven’t forgotten any of your names yet is because our team name is a good mnemonic device. It’s also kinda hard for me to be around some people who aren’t as physically expressive as I am so much. But could you give Yang another chance? I’ll talk to her and make sure she doesn’t do that again.”

There was a long pause as Weiss seemed to calm herself down. She took a single deep breath. “It would be an act of utter foolishness to attempt this a second time. I refuse, and furthermore, I will not participate in any form of activity that requires physical contact that is not combat for the rest of the day.” 

“Oh.” Ruby visibly deflated for a moment, then popped right back up. “So then you will do whatever other things we’re doing!” 

“Yes, I am required to attend this farce, so I may as well occupy my time with its activities.” Weiss took a seat, crossing her legs. “Entertain me.” 

“Did...” Yang stared in confusion at Weiss, “did the Ice Queen just make a joke?” 

“Did I?” Weiss raised an eyebrow impassively.

Damn it. Why was it so hard to be pissed off at her? Most of the time she acted like a person. But Yang should be pissed after what Weiss had said about Ruby. Why wasn’t Ruby pissed? Probably repression, she seemed like the type to do that.

“Why can’t you just be consistent?” Yang muttered it, quietly enough that Weiss didn’t understand. She spoke louder. “Why can’t you stop flip-flopping between being an asshole and being able to get along with us?” Yang slumped into a chair next to Weiss, looking at her expectantly. 

“That is none of your business.” Weiss turned up her chin and looked at Blake, who was currently standing behind a blindfolded Ruby. “All that is necessary is that we get along well enough to succeed academically. I am prepared to put forth effort and adjust my behavior to this end, are you?”

“Fine.” Yang stood, picked up the blindfold that had been dropped on the ground, and put it on. This was a stupid idea, but fuck it. She wasn't dragging down Blake because of a grudge, even if it was against Weiss fucking Schnee. “If you would?” 

“Very well.” There was the sound of chairs being moved. “When you are ready.”

Yang let herself fall, fully prepared to receive the knock on the head she probably deserved. It was a shock when cool, slender hands actually arrested her descent by grabbing carefully onto her shoulders. They then roughly pushed her back to her feet. 

“There, satisfied?” 

Yang reluctantly nodded as she took off the blindfold. It was something. A beginning, probably.

###### Ozpin

The familiar sound of a portal opening immediately drew Ozpin out of his paperwork, though he made a show of ignoring it. “My, is it that time of the month again already?” He dryly asked of his desk.

“Period jokes are unbecoming of you, Oz.” Raven Branwen’s boots clicked confidently against the floor as she strode to her usual place, sitting on his desk one foot in front of him at a thirty degree angle. She snatched up the folder labeled Yang Branwen and flipped to the happenings of the most recent month. “Now, now, what have we got here? Spying on my daughter?” 

The question was facetious, of course. Raven was the one who had insisted that Oz keep track of Yang when she left home, not that he hadn’t already intended to do just that. As Glynda had said in the past, the two known Branwens were a family that teetered constantly along the line between useful and troublesome. 

“She’s a student now. Here.” Ozpin figured that it was better to rip the band-aid, rather than wait for Raven to realize what had happened herself. 

As expected, murderous red eyes glared out from beneath Raven’s shock of pure black hair. “What have you done?” The second most dangerous hunter he had ever trained pressed her blade to his throat. “I swear on my father’s grave that if you get her tangled up in your bullshit I will kill your entire inner circle, starting with you.” 

“I assure you, I have played no part in her application to Beacon, and evaluated her as I would any other student.” Ozpin put his hands up placatingly, and the sword was withdrawn to be held tightly at its owner's side. 

“Brilliant. Enough to make me envy Qrow his flask.” Raven commented dryly. 

“If it’s any consolation, Yang is only a third choice candidate for involvement in the Great Game, and the primary candidate is on a different team.” 

“Who’s second?”

“Yang’s team leader, Ruby Rose.” 

Raven froze for a long moment at that, her face going carefully blank. “I see.” She read through the rest of the report without comment. “You’ll want to put her into advanced dust classes and tutor her to make up for what she lacks, she knows enough that she would be a serious danger to novices. She has the aura control for it.” 

“How I educate my students is my own business.” 

“And how you coerce my daughter is my business.” 

“You know that I always give people a choice.”

“A choice with consequences that they don’t understand until it becomes too late.” 

“Consequences that are necessary for the sake of public freedom, life, and safety throughout Remnant.” 

“Fine, enjoy playing your mind games.” Raven sighed. It was always the same argument. “I’m done here, enjoy trying to justify your actions.” 

Ozpin said nothing as the bandit returned to whence she came. At least Qrow had remained dedicated to the cause.

###### Blake

A day of near physically painful and often cheesy team building activities was enough to develop what appeared to be at least a grudging tolerance between Yang and Weiss. One that didn’t stop Weiss from bitching about how long Yang took in the shower, but that was probably just because she was uptight. 

Yang and Ruby were both somewhat messy roommates, and Weiss had gotten onto them about that as well. They were mostly willing to organize their living spaces slightly better than they had at first, coming to some sort of compromise. When Weiss had pushed for more, Ruby pushed back, saying that she was unreasonable. Blake was inclined to agree, Weiss’ standards seemed downright snobbish. It was annoying, but at least she didn’t recognize what kind of books were on the small bookshelf nestled in the corner of the room’s window. 

Blake liked Ruby. She seemed like a subtly competent leader, even if she had needed to be rough with Yang and Weiss. Her soft streak seemed to be a mile wide when she wasn’t under pressure, and she was a kind of person that Blake was glad to be around. Being Faunus was also something that led Blake to trust her more readily. It would have been nice to try to get to know Ruby a little bit over the course of team building day, but she kept needing to pull back, nearly overwhelmed by a thirst that was only agitated by the constant presence of others around her. 

Pretending to sleep at night was officially hellish. In the relative silence of night, and with their distance from the city itself, things were quiet enough that Blake could hear the heartbeats of her teammates from her bed. They were loud, and every single one only served to remind her of the blood flowing through their veins. Made her want it. She knew she really needed to do something about it, it would be far worse to lose control of herself and kill someone else than to try and tell someone her secret. But who could she tell? Yang would hate her, that was unacceptable. Ruby probably would too, which was... less unacceptable. Though Ruby was probably enough of a goody-two-shoes to report Blake and get them all kicked out of Beacon anyway. 

Laying in bed was pointless. Blake got up and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind her and not bothering to turn on the light. She could see well enough without it. Looking in the mirror, she realized that her fangs had extended on their own, and that they were dirty. She retracted them. Yet another problem. 

Wait, why were they dirty? She hadn’t used them since that night. She extended them again. They were covered in blood. That shouldn’t be the case. She hadn’t used them in weeks, had she? Of course not, if she had she wouldn’t be so thirsty. Which meant that it was that man’s blood. A trembling hand reached up and rubbed the fang, trying to get rid of the blood, but it didn’t come away. It was just a spot. One spot out of liters, or however much blood a person has in them. There had been so much. 

Blake grabbed her toothbrush with trembling hands and started to scrub, with just a bit of water. Trying to use toothpaste would no doubt end in a spill. Out damn spot, out. Why wasn’t it coming out? Why did it look like it was getting bigger? Who would have thought the man to have had so much blood in him?

Harder, harder, but there was just more blood, and now Blake realized that her mouth hurt. Was it just her blood? From her gums? She stopped brushing and tried to rinse out her mouth, finding that yes indeed, her gums had bled because of the force she used. And the spot was still there, as if mocking her.

Suddenly, though it was probably a slow movement, the bathroom door opened and Blake nearly shrieked. She barely managed to retract her fangs before Weiss turned on the light.

“Blake?” Weiss’ voice was weak at first, and her posture small, but she straightened up almost immediately, as if she was fine despite being awake at two in the morning. “What are you doing up?”

Not trusting herself to speak, Blake just shrugged. She could hear Weiss’ heart and breathing, they were rapid. Weiss was scared, and Blake’s instincts were telling her that there was prey. She tensed her entire body, keeping herself as still as possible, lest she make the wrong move.

“Did you have a nightmare?” Weiss’ question would have felt invasive coming from anyone else, but Blake found herself wondering if it wasn’t Weiss’ way of admitting that she had had a nightmare.

Cautiously, Blake ran her tongue along her teeth, fangs were hidden, it was safe to speak. “Something like that.” A waking nightmare, the only kind of nightmare she would ever have again.

For a long moment neither one of them could look at the other. They concentrated on the walls and the floor of the spacious bathroom, equally uncertain of what they were going to do now. Weiss’ scent came quickly to Blake in the relatively confined space. She smelled of vanilla and walnuts. She smelled of fear. And she smelled of blood.

“Weiss, you’ve made it clear that you’re determined to stay in Beacon. How determined?” Blake’s voice trembled as she asked. Weiss could help Blake. She didn’t really care about Weiss’ opinion of her, and if Weiss’ determination to stay was stronger than the sense of responsibility she would feel to report Blake to the authorities, then this could work. She needed it to work.

Weiss’ attention snapped to Blake, studying. Somehow, hidden away in the darkness of night and the privacy of the bathroom, there was something vulnerable between the two of them, they could feel it. “If I leave Beacon as anything less than a huntress, I will die. One way or another. I refuse to die.”

“So then, for the sake of all four of us remaining in Beacon, and thus becoming huntresses, are you willing to bear a terrible secret?” Blood pounded in Blake’s head. Her entire body was clenched, she was a predator, she didn’t ask for permission to feed. She took. But that wasn’t right, wasn’t who she was.

“Until my dying breath.” Steely blue eyes stared back, completely focused, even through their obvious lack of sleep.

So Blake said it, those three little words.

###### Weiss

“I’m a vampire.”

If not for the heavy atmosphere permeating the bathroom, Weiss would have laughed. The kind of laugh that her father used when someone suggested something utterly worthless and inconceivable, dismissive and condescending. Instead, she glared at Blake suspiciously. “What?”

“I’m a vampire.” Blake opened her mouth, and there were two perfectly natural looking, big old fangs, presumably made for bloodsucking. “See?”

“What?” This did not make sense.

“I just told you what.” Blake raised an eyebrow. “Twice.”

“And here I thought that you were the only other normal person on this team.” Weiss sighed, and then backtracked as she realized that Blake was glaring at her in anger. “I don’t mean human! I simply do not understand Ruby and Yang. I had believed that you were reasonable.”

“What’s to say I can’t be reasonable just because I’m a vampire?”

“The sheer insanity of the situation precludes any personal behavior you may display!” Weiss snapped at Blake, still shocked. What the hell? “I don’t suppose that Yang is a werewolf as well?”

“Probably not.” Blake shrugged. “I don’t even know if werewolves exist or not.”

“But you’re a vampire, why wouldn’t you know about other supernatural things in general?” This was getting more than a little bit suspicious.

“Look, I can explain whatever you want later, but I really need to feed. It’s been weeks. That’s what motivated me to tell you. I need blood before I go crazy and take it for myself, or hurt someone else.” Now that Blake mentioned it, Weiss could tell that her entire body was tense, holding back. “It won’t kill or change you. Please. I don’t want to do this without consent.” 

“I...” Weiss couldn’t think of a reason to object. The worst case scenario was a less painful death than what would happen if Blake was found out and kicked out of Beacon, meaning that she would be kicked out with her. “Very well, but I will have questions later.” She leaned her back against the wall and tilted her head upward and to the side, glad that her nightgown didn’t cover her neck.

Something in Blake seemed to shift, as if she was no longer fighting against herself. In a blink of the eye Blake crossed the distance between them, her hands wrapping around Weiss’ wrists, pinning her to the wall. Normally Weiss would shriek instantly at such a thing and attack Blake. It was practically a form of restraint, and she should hate it even more than she normally hated to be touched. Somehow this was okay though, after all, she had invited the touch, albeit indirectly. Blake had been invited to feed. It was Weiss’ decision. A decision to help someone, at risk to herself.

Surprisingly, Blake didn’t sink her fangs into Weiss’ neck immediately. Instead, she took a moment to lick it gently. Their bodies were pressed together against the cold white tile wall of the bathroom. Blake was far larger than Weiss, and had far more body to press against. The mouth at Weiss’ neck took it’s sweet time, licking, and nibbling only gently at first. It sent a warm tingling sensation through Weiss’ entire body. Nobody had ever touched her like this, neither with her permission nor so affectionately. 

When fangs finally pierced Weiss’ heated flesh, she couldn’t help but moan. Her legs went limp and suddenly she was held up only by Blake’s body pressing her against the wall. There was brief, sharp pain, and then warm pleasure slid its way up her neck, relaxing muscles and leaving behind warm contentment. 

After what felt like far too little time, Blake pulled away. Weiss groaned mournfully as the warmth receded and dark spots began to dance in her vision, even behind her eyelids. Her head swam, and she realized that she couldn’t see anything even though her eyes were open. As she fell to the ground limply, Blake caught her. 

“Oh no. Weiss?” Blake’s voice was a worried whisper, and all Weiss could do was groan in response. 

To demonstrate that she was conscious and going to be fine, Weiss deliberately manifested her light blue aura. It would be able to heal any potential issue easily. Blake audibly sighed in relief. 

“I’m going to carry you to your bed, okay?” 

Weiss tried to nod, and the message seemed to get across, because the last thing she remembered was being carried into bed, and her bedsheets being gently draped over her. Her nightmares didn’t come back that night.

###### Glynda

“Is this truly necessary, Glynda?” Peter Port’s moustache twiched in annoyance. Glynda had sent out the notice for an emergency staff meeting at six in the morning, it was now eight, and they had just begun. “I was having the most excellent dream. I was grilling boarbatusk steaks, and they smelled even better than-“ 

Glynda rapped her crop against the circular table currently being shared by those at Beacon responsible for managing aberrations. “There’s been a Type 4 Reality Shift. It happened sometime in the last twelve hours.” 

“Type 4’s are commonplace,” Bartholemew’s words were sluggish, and his speech slow, “why did you find it necessary to make me forgo my coffee in your haste to meet?” 

“Every registered demihuman student that was present on campus yesterday or overnight has already begun their Harmonization.” There was a collective groan at Glynda’s revelation. 

“Why can’t there be a single freshman class without a sleeper or an infiltrator?” Harold Mulberry slumped back into his chair. “Isn’t it bad enough that we have to keep an eye on the honest ones to begin with?” 

“Harold,” Thumbelina shot Harold one of her signature disappointed frowns, “we are not threats, nor enemies of any kind, and you would do well to remember that. Whoever this is is probably terrified of how their life has suddenly changed. We need to identify them and help them. Or have you forgotten about the cat incident?” Harold squirmed uncomfortably in his chair. Glynda was inclined to agree; human blood wasn’t meant to spray from a neck at that velocity.

“It’s far too soon to provide even the most simplistic information about aberrations to these Freshmen, they haven’t even begun their classes proper yet.” Peter shook his head. “I say that we test them the old fashioned way, push them until they break and have no choice but to reveal their altered semblance.”

“We will proceed as normal, save that special attention will be paid in search of any who may have been the focus of the Shift. We will train them as usual, and use time and caution to draw them to us. The Shift has only just happened, we can afford to wait. They will almost certainly be able to fully understand their situation before it has settled permanently.” Hopefully. Glynda cleared her throat. “Unless you four have any better ideas?”

Reluctant grumbles from around the table confirmed her expectations.

“Good. Now, let’s prepare for a Breach, just in case, and then resume our ordinary schedule in the afternoon.”


	6. Stew

###### Weiss

A splitting headache was the first thing Weiss felt as she drifted back to consciousness the next morning. She was not a morning person at the best of times. At the manor, Klein would always bring tea a few minutes before she woke up, then leave before she did. It took a few cups before she wanted to do anything less than take out her frustrations on the nearest victim. 

Instinctively, she tried to roll to her side and reach out, but instead she fell out of the bunk bed with a thunk and a ruffling of sheets, thanks to its comparatively small size. To her displeasure, someone was present to chuckle at her misfortune. 

“Hey you, you’re finally awake.” Weiss squinted at the black and white shape that appeared to be speaking to her with Blake’s voice. “I made tea.”

The mention of tea was enough to widen Weiss’ eyes from feral slits into a stare slightly less angry with the universe and more demanding of it. However, she was still on the ground, and getting up required effort, so instead she kept glaring, silently telling Blake to hand over the goods. 

“Wow. You must really feel like shit if you don’t even have the dignity to drink tea sitting up.” Blake walked over and sat on her heels, then held out her hands, palms up. “Would you like me to put you back into your bed first? It’s the least I can do, I messed up a little last night.” 

“You may.” Weiss’ throat was more than a little bit dry, and it ached slightly. All the more reason to drink tea. And then address... whatever last night had been.

Gently, Blake slid her hands under Weiss and lifted her back into bed, as if she weighed nothing. A saucer with a cup of still steaming tea was then handed to her. 

Weiss took a sip. It wasn’t as good as Klein made it, but it was surprisingly good, considering that it was made by Blake, someone who had previously been living on the streets. Throat now slightly soothed, she spoke. “So what happened last night?” She looked around the suspiciously quiet room. “And where are Yang and Ruby?” 

“I asked the two of them to leave, so that they wouldn’t wake you. I sort of drank too much blood and you lost consciousness.” Blake looked at the floor as she sipped her own tea. “Sorry, I’d understand if you wanted to never do this again because of that.” She sounded like a scorned puppy. 

“And if I do decide that? What would happen then?” Weiss was pretty sure backing out wasn’t an option, but she wanted to know what Blake would say. 

“I’d turn to Ruby in a few weeks, I guess. We’d never speak of it again, most likely.” Blake shrugged, her movements and posture growing more lethargic. 

“Unacceptable.” Weiss used another sip of tea as cover to gather her thoughts. There was a rational reason why she wanted Blake to feed on her regularly. The fact that if she was alone in this room right now she would most likely be riding her fingers to the memory of Blake pushing her against a bathroom wall was most certainly not her motivation. Such thoughts were unbecoming and unwelcome. “More people knowing will only increase the chance of disaster.” 

“Thank you.” Blake closed her eyes as her body went limp, and her throat worked wordlessly for a moment. “Thank you Weiss. So much.” 

“There is no need to thank me, this is a mutually beneficial arrangement.” 

All at once, Blake popped back up in her chair, returning to her bright eyed, snarky demeanor. “Mutually beneficial? Is that why you moaned when I went for your neck, and louder when I got around to biting you?” 

“I-that was a moan of pain.” Weiss knew that it was a terrible lie, but it wasn't as if she understood the reason herself. “I simply mean that I benefit from your continued self-control and discretion in this matter.”

“Sure it was.” Blake flashed a toothy, fang-filled grin. 

“Why did you... do what you did before biting me, anyway?”

“It’s... odd.” Once again, Blake’s confidence turned to uncertainty. “At that point I was acting on instinct, and up until that point all of my instincts were telling me to just, well, take what I needed. But then you gave me permission, and the first thing that I wanted was to be close to you, and express how thankful I was. I thought about why you were awake, and I just wanted you to feel safe. So I did what I could. I’m sorry, it was probably something that I shouldn’t have done.” She wrapped her arms around her torso, rubbing her biceps with her hands.

Weiss stared. This was too much. Her heart felt like it was in her throat. She wanted it to stop. Instead, she spoke. “It’s okay. It worked.”

“So, should I do it again?” Blake looked just as confused and tumultuous as Weiss felt.

Every last ounce of reason in Weiss’ body was screaming at her that no, there was no reason to perpetuate such a pointless thing. “Yes.”

Another big fangy grin. Almost protective. “Okay.”

They sat in silence for a while. Eventually Weiss finished her tea, and she felt physically capable of getting out of bed. She didn’t.

“Do you intend to explain any of this independently, or am I going to have to press you for answers?” Weiss looked at Blake expectantly.

“The thing is, I don’t actually know anything about any wider supernatural world that may or may not exist.” Blake shrugged apologetically. “I actually barely know anything about the way that my vampirism is. I’ve just figured almost all of this out with trial and error.”

“How did you even become a vampire then? I assume that you did not simply appear in the fashion that Grimm do.” This was too strange, Weiss simply couldn’t muster any vitriol with Blake. Perhaps there was some form of vampiric influence occurring. A worrying possibility, but vampires in fiction could sometimes mesmerize. 

“It’s not something that I’d like to talk about. Suffice it to say that I ran away before my situation could be properly explained to me.” Blake’s jaw clenched. 

“Last night you said that you didn’t want to hurt someone else. Whatever else happened, did you kill someone?” 

“Yes.” Blake’s entire body tensed. 

“I see.” This did explain why Blake would want to keep the matter a secret from Yang, despite their closeness. “Did you want to kill this person?”

“No! Of course not!” 

“That’s good enough for me.” Weiss nodded, once. “I’m satisfied. You have given me the benefit of the doubt thus far, and I will do the same for you.”

“Thank you, again.” Blake slumped back into her chair. 

“Whatever are you thanking me for now?” 

“For not seeing me as a monster.” A wan smile crossed Blake’s face. “Even though I do.”

Weiss wanted to say something, to attempt to reciprocate this sudden openness from Blake, but she couldn’t. Her throat physically closed itself as she tried to speak, and her father’s words echoed in her mind. 

_Never allow others to know of weakness, everyone is an enemy, especially those who would act as your friend._

“Anyway, lunch?” Blake wriggled her eyebrows enticingly. 

“Lunch?” Weiss was taken aback. She’d only just woken up, yet it was lunchtime? She looked at her scroll. It was nearly noon. “Did you allow me to sleep through the day’s events?” 

“Nope. They got cancelled until afternoon, some sort of emergency staff project, even though apparently nothing weird or dangerous has happened.” Blake shrugged. 

“Very well then, lunchtime it is. How often shall we plan on doing what we did last night?” 

“Having an unlocked aura should be enough to make up for the blood loss after three days, so say weekly? Feeding regularly should mean I’m not thirsty enough for what happened last night to happen again.” 

“That is acceptable.” Weiss finally managed to get out of bed. “If you don’t mind waiting, I will dress myself, and we can be on our way. To eat terrible food.” Weiss frowned. Something else about this situation was bothering her. It felt oddly similar to something someone had suggested to her the day before.

“Sounds good to me. See you in a few minutes.” Blake smirked, and sarcastically waved goodbye as Weiss gathered her things and headed into the bathroom.

###### Ruby

“Come on Nora! Show ‘em how we do it in team JNPR!” Jaune cheered vigorously as Nora and Yang locked their hands together in a contest of strength. 

“Yeah, you got this Nora!” Pyrrha had started out a little bit confused by the situation, but she had figured out the arm wrestling spirit. 

“I believe in you Yang! Also I’m your leader so I’m ordering you to win for the honor of team RWBY anyway!” Ruby fist pumped for emphasis. 

“Team RWBY Anyway?” Yang grunted as she continued the test of strength against Nora. “Never heard of them.”

“Nora.” Ren stared intensely at Nora. They didn’t shout like the others, instead their voice was as quiet and calm as it always was. “You can do this. 

With one final warcry, Nora wrenched Yang’s arm and slammed it against the table they were dueling on. “Yeaaaah! Alright! Team JNPR is the strongest! I did it Ren!” 

Ren put their hand on top of Nora’s head and patted her gently. “Good job.” The two of them smiled at each other. 

“No fair, you guys had three people cheering on Nora, and all Yang had was me.” Ruby pouted. 

“Nope, uh-uh. You can’t just complain that it was uneven after you lost. These guns were just bigger today.” Nora flexed and kissed each of her bulging biceps. Ruby found that she no longer minded Yang’s loss all that much. 

“I know, I know, but we’re totally having a rematch some other time. And Blake and Weiss will cheer Yang on and she’ll totally win.” Ruby pounded her fist against the table for emphasis. 

“Actually I’m pretty sure Weiss wouldn’t be cheering. And I really wouldn’t want to win because of her.” Yang grimaced. 

“Yang, come on. She really isn’t that bad. I think she really just needs to warm up to us. She apologized about what she said when our team got formed and I really think she meant it, so be nicer to her, okay?” 

“I can’t do that.” Yang sighed. 

“Why not?”

“This really isn’t the time to talk about it.” Yang gestured to the four humans in the room. 

“Oh yeah.” Ruby wagged her finger at Yang. “We are talking about it later though.” 

“You’re going to insist I be nicer to her until we do, aren’t you?” Yang looked resigned to her fate. 

“Yep.” Ruby nodded sternly, then gave Yang a quick hug. “It’s okay.” So far, she was trying to be a good leader by thinking about what Summer would do and trying to do that. It seemed to be working pretty well. 

“Why do you dislike Weiss? She’s so beautiful.” Jaune stared off into the distance for a moment before coming back to reality. 

“I really don’t want to talk about it right now, okay?” Yang snapped at Jaune, who slumped a little. 

“Actually, about that whole thing with Weiss, Ruby turned to Jaune, “you should probably stop hitting on her. She genuinely doesn’t appreciate it. And maybe apologize for before? That was really bad.”

“Yeah, I sort of realized that when I got thrown out of the room with her semblance.” Jaune scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “I’m probably going to stick with pining and friendliness and then hope she asks me out.” 

“Good luck with that.” Ruby patted Jaune’s shoulder as reassuringly as she could. He was gonna need it. 

“Yes Jaune, good luck.” Pyrrha took the other shoulder with a kindly smile. “Although are you really sure you want to pursue someone solely because of their appearance?”

“Oh it’s not just that, I love a woman who can and will kick my ass.” Jaune flashed a confident smile at Pyrrha. 

“Really? You know what Jaune, would you like me to train you a bit? Just the two of us?” Pyrrha’s grip on Jaune’s shoulder tightened. 

“That would be great, thanks Pyrrha! You can be blunt though, I know I need combat training.”

“Great! Let’s go right now then!” Pyrrha yoinked Jaune out of his chair and started dragging him out of the room. 

“What about lunch? I need to eat lunch before we train.” Jaune scrambled for an excuse to delay Pyrrha’s enthusiasm.

“Hell yeah, lunch!” Nora fist pumped. “I get to be first in line because I won the arm wrestling contest!” She picked up Rena and started to rush out the door, with Ruby, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Yang in tow.

In the hallway they encountered a now waking Weiss, accompanied by Blake.

“Good morning Weiss! Did you manage to sleep well?” Ruby beamed at her partner.

“What exactly did you tell them?” Weiss’s attitude was surprisingly relaxed, the question was simply asking Blake for clarification, rather than scolding.

“That we both had trouble sleeping last night, and you needed your sleep.” Blake shrugged.

“Yes, I did manage to sleep well, though only after Blake had a bite to eat.” Weiss made the remark casually, but for some reason Blake’s jaw dropped all the way to the floor in shock. Weird that Blake ate and Weiss didn’t.

“Uh, hey Weiss. Sorry about yesterday.” Jaune waved nervously. 

Weiss spared him a glance, then simply turned on her heel and started walking to the cafeteria, followed by Blake.

“Do you like, have a thing for tsunderes or something?” Ruby maneuvered herself to the other side of Jaune and Pyrrha. “Because she isn’t a tsundere, she actually dislikes you.”

“Okay, you could be a little bit less blunt about that.” Jaune winced. “I just... like girls though. It’s not like there’s a real reason behind it. Besides, you like her too don’t you?”

“I mean, I would die if she started flirting with me, but like, that applies to basically every girl my age ever.” Ruby was aware that she liked Pyrrha more, but it wasn’t like she was going to admit that. 

“Valid.” Jaune nodded sympathetically.

“Weiss is an interesting person.” Ren followed Weiss’ movements closely as they strolled through the dorms. “I think that she will warm up to us, eventually.”

Lunch consisted of hamburgers that were somehow even more questionable than Uncle Qrow’s scavenged field hamburgers. Ruby sat with her team, who had gathered around Weiss, who had deliberately avoided being near Jaune.

“Ugh, my uncle is a better cook than this, and he always sets everything on fire and causes injuries.” Ruby looked at her ketchup-smothered hamburger with disgust.

“I think that we should go shopping for food once afternoon events are done, and take care of our own dinners.” Blake gave up on the hamburgers and had just gotten herself a salad from the salad bar.

“If we were allowed to go into the Emerald Forest whenever we want I’d just scavenge the two of us some nice rabbit stew. It would probably only take an hour.” Yang sighed.

“You can cook?” Ruby had the beginnings of an idea forming.

“Of course I can, I’m a great cook. My scavenger stew is legendary in the W-” Yang suddenly coughed. “In the Mistral wilderness scouts.”

“Why don’t we all work together and have group meals then? We can split the costs and the chores evenly. If someone helps you out with cooking they can learn to cook too, and then the other two do the cleanup.”

“No. Absolutely not. I will never cook food for a Schnee.” 

Ruby crossed her arms and gave Yang her best disappointed look. “Yang. We’re not doing this unless we do it as a team.” 

“Look Ruby, fighting is one thing. When it comes to killing Grimm, methodology doesn’t really matter that much to me, it’s an unambiguously good thing. But there is no way in hell that I am going to cook for a Schnee like some sort of servant. I would rather spend the rest of my life eating this disgusting slop, than cook for Weiss.” Yang crossed her arms as well, thinking that the issue was settled.

“I would appreciate an opportunity to learn to cook from you.” Weiss spoke up. “I assure you that I see you as an equal. And do consider that I will be working as a part of the cooking process as well.”

“You... do?” Yang squinted suspiciously at Weiss, then growled in frustration. 

“Give her a chance Yang, I think it’s worth trying.” Blake put a hand on Yang’s shoulder, causing Yang to stare at her in surprise for a moment.

“Damnit, fine. Whatever. I’ll make a shopping list when we get back to the dorm, you can go ahead and be the first to shop.” Yang shook her head. “But I still don’t like this.”

“That is acceptable.” Weiss nodded.

###### Blake

After lunch Blake, Yang, and Ruby attended a dull presentation about their scholarships, going over the things that they needed to do to maintain them and filling out paperwork. It turned out that she and Yang would need to do thirty hours of community service each per semester, in addition to having a 3.0 GPA at the end of each academic year. 

At the end of the presentation, Yang also got her qualification test for advanced dust classes back. Ruby also got back some kind of test.

“What? How’d I fail? That’s ridiculous. This doesn’t even make sense, there are two different questions that ask what you get when you mix ice and earth dust, and even though I answered plant dust on both, one of them is wrong. Plus all of these safety questions are apparently wrong, which makes no sense either.” Yang threw the test away in frustration.

“That sounds really weird.” Blake barely used dust, only very small, simple amounts for her clones, so she couldn’t help Yang with the test at all. “Ruby, do you know what’s up with thar?”

“Nope, I use dust rounds a bit, but all I know is the basic handling stuff associated with all that, and how to use it in an engineering project, nothing about making compounds or fusions.” Ruby shrugged. “I got approved to use the school forge freely though, which is gonna be awesome.”

“You know how to work metal?”

“More than that, I designed Crescent Rose and my arm myself.” Ruby proudly wriggled the fingers of her mechanical left arm. She wore it so naturally that Blake sometimes forgot it was robotic. “Plus, working the forge means that I can make some quick money by making machine and weapon parts for the school.”

“Lucky, we all still gotta do thirty hours of service though. Want to try to schedule all of them together? We can just do two hours every Sunday.” Yang said.

“I might do more than the minimum if I have time.” Blake looked forward to helping people again. She missed the old days of the White Fang, which had involved a lot of helping Faunus directly through charity work, along with advancing political causes.

“Actually, I don’t have to do community service. I’ve got a family and d-” Ruby stopped for a moment mid-sentence, “another kind of scholarship, because my parents are both hunters too. I sort of want to do it just to help you guys, buuuut I think I’m going to need all the free time I can get.”

“What for?” Now that she wasn’t very thirsty, Blake really wanted to get closer to Ruby. She liked the usually cheery leader so far, and without constant thirst getting in the way she could finally stop worrying about letting people too close.

“Tinkering and stuff. Mostly tinkering and homework, probably.” 

“Would you show me sometime?”

Ruby’s eyes widened to the size of saucers as she looked directly at Blake for the first time in the conversation. “Really? You want to know things about the stuff I build?” A hopeful and excited smile grew on her face.

“Yeah.” Blake returned Ruby’s infectiously enthusiastic smile.

“Okay, okay, okayokayokay, uhhhh, I don’t even know where to begin. Ahhh! I’m excited! Nobody ever wants to hear me rambling about things!” Ruby jumped in excitement, her hands waving about wildly. “Come on, let’s go to the forge and I’ll show you what I can do!” Ruby grabbed Blake’s hand and started to rush them off together, nearly slapping her with a wing in the process.

“Okay, see you later Yang!” Blake called out to an amused Yang at the last second before she rounded a corner with Ruby.

The only reason Blake was able to keep up with Ruby was no doubt the fact that she was a vampire, and thus didn’t get fatigued anymore. She even had to be careful not to be suspiciously fast as they ran out of the dorm complex and across the grounds to the forge building. She was probably going to need to be careful not to be inhumanly fast during training, although given that they were hunters, being a little bit faster and stronger than she was before turning probably wouldn’t draw any suspicion. She really couldn’t tell what her limits might be yet. Fighting in the Emerald Forest had been easy enough that she hadn’t needed to be better than usual, and might not have been able to anyway, given her starved state at the time.

The forge building was very modern, with a large number of separate rooms that could be set up and used for metalwork as well as for working with dust in various ways. Ruby signed in, grabbed them PPE, and led Blake to a simple forge room, stocked with a workbench, tools, and a dust powered forge.

“Some of the forge rooms have to use non-dust fuels for people who are trying to forge dust into stuff, but I don’t know how to do that yet, so here we are.” Ruby took a seat at the workbench like it was her own home and stretched her entire body in one big yawn, even as she she cracked the knuckles of her right hand.

Blake looked around. It was all very simple, yet effective. A sealing door with an external digital lock, thick walls, no doubt blast-proof, no windows, just a hood and a ventilation system that must have been high quality. Her ears itched under her bow. “Ruby, would you mind keeping a little secret?”

“Yeah, sure.” Ruby shrugged, her concentration wandering happily around the room as she took it all in with what was no doubt a practiced eye.

Rather than say it, Blake just took off her bow, sighing as her ears twitched freely once again. The cool air of the room felt nice against them.

It took a few moments for Ruby’s attention to wander to the top of Blake’s head, and once it did she gasped excitedly. “Oh, cool! That means we’re a team with three Faunus, awesome! We can go crazy with night missions.”

“Indeed we are.” Blake smiled. It really was nice to have a team leader who was also Faunus, even if she seemed a bit sheltered about racial issues. 

Ruby got up from the workbench seat and spread her arms questioningly. “Celebratory hug?”

“Alright.” Blake opened her arms and laughed as Ruby slammed herself into an embrace with a little bit more force than necessary. The top of Ruby’s head came up to just under Blake’s chin, allowing Ruby to just bury herself adorably into the crook of Blake’s neck. She ran her fingers through Ruby’s short black hair happily. It was nice not to feel incredibly guilty about the urges brought on by the closeness of a hug again. Ruby smelled like strawberries and cookies. The scent of blood was present as well, but Blake found that she didn’t really care about it.

“Mmmph, you’re a good hugger.” Ruby broke the hug after a good minute or so, then clapped her hands excitedly. “Okay, but mechanical things!” She grabbed a plastic box filled with parts that Blake couldn’t identify and took a seat on the bench. “Come over here! You can look over my shoulder, there won’t be any sparks or anything. Yet.” The fingers of Ruby’s left hand all unscrewed themselves simultaneously, revealing a screwdriver, wrench, what appeared to be a small welding torch, and a soldering iron. “Okay, so what I’m going to do right now is take a shot at making the base of this chainsaw hand attachment I designed for my arm, I gotta start by making a bunch of the electronic parts, because it’s way cheaper to make them myself with the materials I get here.”

A long time passed quickly as Ruby explained everything she did to Blake. She didn’t really retain most of the information, but she enjoyed just watching the process of complicated machines being made by hand. As well as Ruby’s constant enthusiasm and blatant joy at the prospect of being able to tell someone about something that she was working on.

###### Adam

Never before had the expression “nose to the ground” been so literal. It had taken an entire two and a half weeks to track down Blake. Somehow, she had left the cave that Adam had taken her to without leaving a trail, most likely related to whatever her new and enhanced semblance was. He had wasted an entire week scouring the area around the cave for a scent that didn’t exist. It was until the Lieutenant pointed out that the Branwen bimbo had left as well that he realized she had impossibly managed to return to camp before him.

That simplified things. To find Blake, all that was necessary was finding her annoying best friend. That scent had been a week old by then though, and Adam was only able to follow it so quickly. By the time he reached the obvious conclusion about the trail’s destination another week had passed. They had gone to Vale. A pain in the ass. But he was nothing if not persistent, one of the world’s four walled cities wasn’t enough to stop him.

Getting into the city only took a day. Gathering information another. Getting Neopolitan to meet him was simple enough once he dangled the location of her precious Roman’s killer over her head. Using him as a sacrifice had been an excellent idea, the perfect insurance policy against his plaything running away and trying to spill any secrets she may have picked up.

“She’s at Beacon.” Adam handed over a picture of Blake. “Student.” Never in his life had he been so disgusted by a traitor. To not only accept his gift, only to run away, but to run away to one of the great human fortresses was unforgivable. If Blake had behaved sensibly, he would have been kind to her, only locking her up until she learned her lesson. But now it was necessary to kill her. Such a waste of a once great freedom fighter.

Neo nodded, her white eyes almost shining in the ironically warm light of evening. She had her mission. Good.

The traitor would die tonight, of that much Adam was sure.

###### Yang

Yang had decided that dinner would be a nice simple meat stew. Weiss had done a good job of picking out ingredients, and she picked Blake as her assistant chef for the night, mostly so that they could talk as they cooked.

“You seem like you’ve been doing better lately.” Yang made a casual remark as she chopped onions.

“I have, yeah.” Blake nodded. “Today’s been pretty good, and I’m feeling a lot better about some things.”

“Still not going to talk about any of them though?” Yang didn’t mind if Blake took her time at this point, not now that she was clearly feeling better. Still, she couldn’t help being a little worried about Blake anyway.

“Eventually.” Blake hummed a tune as they focused on cooking together, their long history enough that they didn’t really need to say much, except when Yang told Blake what ingredient to get next, or how to prepare it.

“Good, I’m glad you’re feeling better. Gotta have my favourite _wingman_ in tip-top condition, after all.” Yang cackled gleefully as Blake groaned at the pun. She barely had to think about cooking at this point, she was renowned as the best cook in their chapter of the White Fang. With access to store bought ingredients and actual spices, this dinner was going to knock the shit out of her team, metaphorically, of course. Probably. As tempted as she was, she wasn’t going to deliberately spice up Weiss’ serving.

“I know you aren’t going to sleep on the puns, but could you at least take a _cat_ nap.” Blake shot back.

“Or what, you’ll talk my _ears_ off?”

“I’ll _cat_ ch two birds with one stone and rip out your tongue.” Blake made a spicy triple pun, with a third pun that was only situationally implicit. A masterful stroke.

“Hey, you skipped a double pun. I can't just escalate to quadruple puns at will like that. It takes a warm up.” Yang groused, holding a kitchen knife threateningly in one hand.

“Of course I did, that’s the easiest way to beat you.” Blake smirked sadistically.

“Hey, just out of curiosity, how long has it been since I’ve told you that you’re the worst?”

“You literally just did. Now get back to work, Branwen.”

“We’re not having bran at all, bran is gross and we’d be better off just using something normal and tasty.” Yang made one last pun as she put the lid and set the stew to simmer, it was worth getting the last word, even if she couldn’t win. “Now we just gotta let it cook for an hour.”

“Hey.” Blake elbow bumped Yang before they went back into their dorm. “How are _you_ doing? I’ve been having a rough time lately, but how much are you going through?” 

“It’s pretty good here. Haven’t dealt with any racists yet. Not really worried about needing to, not after four months in Mistral.” Yang smiled wanly. “Even all this with Weiss isn’t hurting me so much as making me angry.”

Blake frowned, not buying it. “Being angry hurts too. We both know that.”

“Ah,” Yang looked away, embarrassed. “I was hoping you wouldn’t think of that.” Blake was too good at knowing her sometimes, just like she could be too good at knowing Blake.

“Is it Weiss still?”

“Yeah.”

“Why? She’s been well behaved, except for that one comment.”

“That’s not enough. Even if she’s not actively being evil, she’s still a Schnee. How can I just accept her when she still represents everything that Atlas and the SDC are? How is that you seem to be getting along with her?”

“I never thought of it that way. She’s really just a person, you can’t blame her for her father’s policies.” Blake looked disappointed.

“Even if that’s true, she’s still spent her entire benefiting from his blood money, she’s still here entirely because of said money. When we graduate she’s just going to go and perpetuate it all without a care in the world. I can’t just ignore that and be besties with her, even if you can.” For a moment Yang glared at the top of Yang’s head, indicating her bow.

“Yang, you have no idea what Weiss and I have to do with each other. She helped me.” Blake got that one stubborn look on her face that only showed up when she intended to stick up for a friend.

“Are you even listening to yourself? Does she even know who you are? What does it matter if she helped you when she doesn’t? She’s the enemy Blake!”

Blake took a step back, her face twisting with sudden fear. “You sound like Adam.”

“Wait, no! I don’t mean it like that.” Yang’s eyes widened and she reached out her hand towards Blake. “Don’t go!” But she only touched fading shadows. Blake had already left. “No, nononono.” Yang’s knees buckled, and she fell against the door with a soft thud, sliding down to the ground. 

Why couldn’t Blake understand? What was happening between her and Weiss?

Yang sat there, wallowing in self-hatred. After what was probably only a moment, Ruby opened the door, sending Yang’s head falling limply to the ground, cushioned slightly by her aura.

“Something’s wrong, where’s Blake?” Ruby crouched down next to Yang. “What happened?”

“I said something stupid and I scared her away.” Yang curled into a ball. 

“Then go apologize silly.” Ruby rolled her eyes. “We’ll take care of dinner. If she ends up running into the city we’ll ditch whatever event we’re supposed to do and go find her tomorrow, okay?”

Yang stared at Ruby for a second, surprised. “I don’t really think chasing her is a good idea right now.”

“You two are friends, you’re going to go apologize right now. If she runs away a second time you let her have her space and come back to you on her own, but she probably just needs to calm down a little bit.”

“That’s... a pretty good point.” With a groan, Yang pushed herself up. “Thanks Ruby.” 

“Try to get back in time for dinner, okay? It smells really good.” Ruby gave Yang an encouraging nod.

“Yeah, maybe I will.” Yang smiled back, and started running after Blake.


	7. Parasol

###### Blake

Blake ran. She needed to get away from Yang, that was all that it was at first. She had the restraint not to use her more inhuman abilities to run, she still knew and trusted Yang enough that she could hold herself back, at least that much. 

There were a few people out and about, but most of them were probably hitting the town or in their dorms while they had the chance to relax. The few who happened to be out gave Blake confused looks as she dashed past them. She ended up in the library, leaning tiredly against a large bookshelf in an isolated corner. It was somewhere that Yang would probably look for her. She didn’t really mind. 

It felt like she should have been panting as she rested, but in fact she wasn’t short of breath at all. Did she even need to breathe? Suddenly curious, she stopped breathing. It was awkward, and uncomfortable, but there was no constantly building pressure to take the next breath. Apparently breathing was optional now. Another piece of humanity shed, what fun.

In her moment of self-exploration, Blake didn’t see the girl with black hair and green eyes who calmly ducked behind one of the many bookshelves upon seeing her in the library. But she did hear the sound of a book harshly slammed shut, as if in anger. Her attention was drawn and what she saw was enough that her breathing stopped again, this time involuntarily.

Standing just a few feet in front of her was a man with bright orange hair covered by a bowler hat, wearing a white suit. His eyes glowed white with hate, and he was staring directly at her. Then, as suddenly as he was there, he stepped behind a bookshelf, vanishing from Blake sight.

Heart racing, Blake rushed after the man, only to turn the corner and see no one at all. She needed to find him, understand what was happening, and why. And also to make up for what she had done. Guilt crushed her once again, for the first time since the previous night, when she had seen Weiss’ look of contentment as she tucked her into bed.

She ran out from the rows of books and scanned the lobby of the library. From the corner of her eye she managed to catch a patch of bright orange hair and a bowler hat as they disappeared out the front doors of the library. 

Plenty of attention was turned her way as she started running through the lobby, trying to catch up. She didn’t care, all that mattered was getting back, finding this man. Once again, right as she reached the hallway the mysterious man disappeared, this time through one of the building’s back doors that lead out into the gardens. 

Blake was easily led on a pursuit, away from the main campus and further into the more isolated parts of the gardens. Normally they were a beautiful and peaceful sight, but the long shadows of flowers and bushes leered venomously around every corner, and the sunset was a bloody shade of red. 

Finally, Blake came to an immediate stop as she was suddenly face to face with her victim. Those same white eyes stared into her own, piercing her heart with their unrestrained hatred. 

“What do you want?” Blake could barely make herself whisper, the rest of her body paralyzed with fear.

The man didn’t speak, instead he mouthed a single word, simple enough that Blake could easily understand it.

_Die._

A pink and brown parasol suddenly appeared in his hands and lashed out at Blake with impressive speed. She barely brought up her aura in time to block the attack, which sent her sliding back a few feet along the loose gravel garden trail as she drew Gambol Shroud in its dual cleaver form. 

The man began to charge her with his oddly mismatched parasol held before him like a spear, and Blake rolled to the side at the last moment, firing twin pistols as she did. The parasol opened with a snap, easily deflecting all of the bullets. 

Before Blake could regain her stance, the handle of the parasol caught her feet and swept them out from under her in the process of standing up, sending her face into the ground. A series of surprisingly vicious strikes began raining down on her from above. 

Maybe she should just die. It wasn’t like she had done anything but hurt people in the last five years. Whatever strange thing was happening, she probably deserved it. She was just another monster. Her arms started to fall to her side, no longer guarding her face and torso from the furious assault. The pain of the blows was starting to sink deep into her bones. 

Weiss' face flashed through her mind like a flare. _If I leave Beacon as anything less than a huntress, I will die._ The death of a teammate disbanded a team. Blake couldn’t abandon Weiss just because of her own self-loathing. Then Yang’s face. Yang would be lost and alone again, like she’d been in Mistral. Blake couldn’t just surrender and allow that to happen. Last came Ruby. Ruby would be heartbroken, both by her death and by the loss of an opportunity to be a huntress. Blake had to survive. Not for herself, for them.

She rolled to the side, leaving behind a fire dust infused shadow clone, the subsequent blast blew her away from her enemy, and if she was lucky someone would hear it. Ignoring the growing pain in her arms and torso, Blake hurled herself back up into a fighting stance just as her attacker did the same.

This guy seemed better than her. He was incredibly fast and precise. But she could do something that he couldn’t. For the first time since that night, Blake deliberately reached inside of herself, trying to push past what her semblance had been before. As her opponent attacked again she jumped back to avoid the swift strike of the parasol, yet at the same time she caught onto the tip with Gambol Shroud’s sickle.

“You’re trying to kill the wrong person.” Blake growled. She could see through two sets of eyes, feel two Gambol Shrouds in her hands. Somehow, it felt perfectly natural, and a predatory smile grew on her face. She could do this.

Two Blakes in perfect synch advanced on their confused opponent, who rapidly looked between them in a moment of brief confusion. His eyes then quickly hardened back into wrathful storms of white noise. She leapt forward, working with herself to quickly box her opponent into a corner, then stepped in with Gambol Shroud in katana form to deliver her next blow.

When Blake got close, rather than avoid her attack the man deliberately launched himself into her. He grabbed onto her shoulders and vaulted over her head, then used his momentum to slam her over his own head into the ground once again. As her shadow clone stepped forward to protect her from a follow up he drew a cane with his left hand, the tip flipping up as it released a firework-like shot that exploded right in front of the clone and above Blake, doing enough damage to dissolve it back into shadow. 

As her clone vanished, Blake felt the phantom pain of the firework burning the front of her body with violent sensory whiplash. She screamed, and another series of blows landed on her prone body as she writhed in pain. At some point her aura flickered and faded away.

Even without her aura, her attacker didn’t go right for the kill, instead they kept hitting her limbs, deliberately avoiding a quick death. There was a sickening crunch that sent new, even worse pain through her leg. After two more crunches, the blows stopped, replaced with the sound of a thin blade being drawn from its sheath.

###### Yang

Yang walked at a moderate pace at first, she wanted to give Blake a few minutes of distance before trying to approach her. She went to the library first, but Blake was nowhere to be found. Some inquisition revealed that she had left in a hurry just minutes before Yang, for unknown reasons.

A friendly Faunus with large bunny ears pointed her in the direction of the gardens, saying that it had looked like Blake was chasing someone. Information that didn’t really make sense, and Yang was starting to feel that something was wrong.

She dashed through the garden wildly, not really sure where she was at any given moment, only knowing that she had to find Blake and calling out to her constantly. Then she heard it, heart-wrenchingly familiar screams of pain. She sped up even more pushing herself as hard as she could.

The sight that greeted Yang as she finally rounded the corner and found the origins of the scream was not good. A man with a parasol, bowler hat, and white suit stood over Blake’s crumpled shaking body, from the end of the parasol she could see him drawing a rapier.

“Don’t you dare touch my emotional support bisexual!” Yang would never make the mistake of not wearing Ember Celica around campus again, regardless of what any teachers may say, but she still had a plan B for this kind of situation. As she charged the bastard she activated her aura and started to carefully break off flakes of the earth dust crystal resting against her skin, then bring them into her fists. Before she reached her destination, her fists were enclosed in stone. 

Piercing white eyes turned their attention to meet Yang’s red fury as she charged. A scowl appeared on the face of Blake’s attacker as he turned to face Yang with a mismatched parasol in one hand and a slim rapier in the other.

Extra earth dust built up in her right hand, and right before it materialized from her aura as an additional stony gauntlet Yang punched the air, sending the first gauntlet flying ahead of her in the form of a stony fist. When the rapier sliced the fist in half Yang followed it with a dropkick that was fluidly sidestepped by her opponent. 

As she flew by, the rapier in the man’s hand flashed under the light of the setting sun, slicing along her side. She tried to grab hold of it with her shielded fists, but couldn’t. He was far more agile than her, and the weight of the stone didn’t help. 

Yang couldn’t keep up with the intense barrage of attacks and grapples that followed, try as she might all she could do was occasionally use some dust to dodge or block against her opponent. As she took a rap to the back of the head from the parasol, she smiled. She could feel the familiar burning sensation of her semblance powering itself up. She had this. Blake was going to be fine.

With a roar Yang activated her semblance, she swung heavily and powered through her opponent’s guard, overwhelming strength bringing her fist tantalisingly close to the man’s face. Only for him to do a backflip, casually kicking Yang in the face in the process. Her momentum brought her forward, stumbling as she swiped at air, only for an elbow to the neck to casually knock her onto the ground, hard. 

As Yang tried to get up the rapier slashed at her once more, and she felt the strength of her semblance fade from her limbs, aura flickering and vanishing. No, this couldn’t happen. She couldn’t let Blake be killed. And her too, probably.

A boot ground her face into the dirt and the man sat on her shoulders, pinning her down. Slender hands wrapped around her neck and squeezed as she struggled to get out, but she was more than out of breath from the through trouncing, as well as the run here. Dark spots appeared in her vision and her limbs started to fall limp, no longer responding to her commands. In the moment before her vision was gone completely she saw a black tear opening in space, and then nothing.

###### Raven

Raven arrived at Beacon to the sight of Roman Torchwick trying to strangle her daughter. Needless to say, she did not respond well. Omen flashed out of its sheath, already covered in fire dust, and sparked as it was run across Roman’s back. Except that when hit, Roman shattered, revealing a young girl Raven didn’t recognize, dressed in pink, white, and brown. 

“Get the fuck away from my daughter you piece of shit!” Raven growled and carefully stood over Yang’s body as Pinky scrambled away on all fours like a feral cat. Her white eyes flicked calculatingly between the three enemies present. “Run. Or else.”

That seemed to do the trick, as Pinky decided she couldn’t take Raven and scurried off, though not without one last hateful glare. 

When she was satisfied that Pinky was gone, Raven quickly scooped Yang into her arms, taking her pulse. Still alive. She was about to start running for the infirmary when she realized that there was also a black haired woman a few yards away, her limbs splayed out at disturbing angles. Carefully, Raven scooped her up into her other arm and started running like hell, wincing sympathetically as the person who was probably Blake Belladonna jostled and cried out in pain. Hopefully the infirmary was in the same building as it had been in her day.

###### 

Raven refused to leave Yang’s side when she reached the hospital and she insisted that there be no visitors once she entered the room, as far as she knew any one of the nurses who rushed forth to help her could be Pinky in disguise. Fortunately, one of the older nurses recognized her, and made sure that she got her way. Blake was rushed off to have the broken bones set, while Yang was put on monitoring equipment with the expectation that she would wake up soon. 

So Raven ended up perched anxiously beside Yang’s bed, tightly clasping Yang’s hand in both of hers. Hours passed, but she was used to sleepless nights of vigilance, and didn’t care. All she needed was for Yang to be okay.

Hours passed in absolute silence, save the infuriating beep of a heart monitor. Finally, Yang’s eyes opened blearily, and she started to look around the room.

“Yang.” Raven carefully kept the worry out of her voice, trying to maintain her outward appearance of calm, for Yang’s sake. “You’re okay, it’s okay. I scared them off.”

“Mom?” Yang stared in awe, still tinged with slight disorientation and pain.

“That’s right Sunflower, it’s me.” Raven stood up from her seat and carefully hugged Yang, trying to avoid any bits that seemed like they would be sore. 

Yang hugged back, and Raven could feel her body shaking with silent tears. “Mom. I missed you so much.”

“Me too.” Raven honestly didn’t want to let go, but she knew she had to at some point, just like she had two years ago. Eventually, she did, though her grip lingered firmly on Yang’s shoulders, assessing her. “Now, how are you feeling? Do you need water? Food?”

“No, I...” Yang squinted, trailing off. “Blake! Is Blake okay?” Her voice shook. 

“She’s going to be fine, nothing very serious happened. She’s okay.” Raven pulled Yang into another hug. “Everything’s okay, every _one_ is okay.” 

Sobbing broke out, and Yang buried her face in Raven’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

“Shhhh, there, there. It’s okay.” 

“I love you mom.”

“Love you too sweetie.” Raven patted Yang’s back gently. The person responsible for this was going to burn.

There was a knock at the door, and Raven tensed, standing up. Yang sighed and settled herself back into the bed with a satisfied sigh. The handle turned, and there was an attempt to open it, but she had blocked the door with a chair.

Carefully, Raven walked up to the door and removed the chair, sword drawn and held in front of her. 

The door burst open with great force, revealing an energetic, silver-eyed girl with a look in her eyes that Raven was all too familiar with. She cocked her head curiously as she saw Raven. “Uh, who are you?”

There was no doubt that this was Summer’s daughter. Raven gulped, then quickly pulled herself together. “I’m Yang’s mom, Raven. You must be Ruby.”

“Yep, I sure am.” Ruby beamed every bit as blindingly as Summer. All the way down to the pair of bright red wings that fluttered wildly on her back. “How’d you know?”

“Summer was my partner here in the old days.” The days before everything had started falling apart. Sometimes Raven missed those days, sometimes she wished she could forget them.

“Whoa! You’re Rae! And you’re Yang’s mom! That’ssoamazingmymom’stoldmeallsortsofawesomestoriesaboutallofyoudoingcrazycoolthingsnadI’msuperexcitedandYang’sanawesometeammateandwe’regonnabeevenmoreawesomethanyouwereandkicksomuchbutt-”

“You’re rambling again.” Raven interrupted Ruby gently. She still had the skill to understand what appeared to be the signature Rose family ramble, but it was starting to give her a headache. Mostly because of just how painfully much it reminded her of Summer.

“Oh, sorry.” Ruby shrugged unapologetically, her grin unfaltering. “It’s just really cool to finally meet you!”

“What exactly has Summer told you about me?” Raven quirked an eyebrow. Summer better not be out and about ruining her reputation. 

“That you’re a big grump who’s secretly really nice.” 

Raven tried to scowl, but found that she couldn’t. Damn Summer and her inexplicably hereditary infectious excitement. “Don’t think that I’m a hero kid, I take care of my own. Nothing more and no one else.”

Ruby furrowed her brow. “But mom says-“

“I’m well aware of what Summer thinks of me.” This time Raven did scowl. She had no intention of letting Summer realize the nature of her mistaken opinion. “Goodbye.” Yang was safe, and she probably should have left hours ago, so without a backward glance she channeled her aura into her blade, and opened a portal. 

“Well I think she’s right.” Ruby’s parting comment did nothing to slow Raven’s retreat, but it did bring a smile filled with regret and shame to her face.

###### Weiss

When neither Yang nor Blake returned in a timely fashion, Weiss began to worry. Not about Yang, of course, only Blake. When Ruby’s scroll suddenly began to light up with messages, Weiss began to internally panic. When they arrived at the infirmary to find that they were being barred access to Yang, and that Blake was in too poor a condition to receive visitors, Weiss had to put a great deal of effort into refraining from giving the nurses who were simply doing their jobs a thorough tongue-lashing. 

While Ruby attempted to get to the root of why Yang was not allowed visitors despite receiving only minor injuries, Weiss simply waited. She would be there when Blake was once again allowed visitors. It shouldn’t be too long, given the regenerative abilities of aura. 

Beacon’s infirmary was in fact functionally a small hospital, as was necessary in such a dangerous profession as the one that they were training for. There was something grimly amusing about the fact that the school year hadn’t even begun properly, yet already it had its first patients. 

As Weiss waited her mind was filled with visions of what may have happened. It was clear that Blake had been attacked by someone, but who or why was still unknown. She could only image the sickly sounds of breaking bone and weapons cleaving through flesh. 

It wasn’t until a dark green figure appeared in the corner of Weiss’ vision that she pulled herself away from dark thoughts. They rapped an intricate cane against the tile floor of the hallway twice, drawing her attention. 

“Miss Schnee.” Headmaster Ozpin gazed down at her curiously from behind his glasses. “I have good news, firstly being that your teammate has been deemed ready to interact with others, though I can’t say whether she has yet regained consciousness.” Behind him stood Ruby and Yang, both looking a bit tired, but otherwise none the worse for wear. 

Weiss stood in a rush, nodding hastily in acknowledgement of Ozpin’s news as she put herself back together. “Thank you headmaster. Can you tell us anything about what it is that happened?” 

“I have an inkling, but I believe that in order to understand the full story we will need to wait for Miss Belladonna to wake up.” Despite having just admitted to an ignorance of the situation that matched Weiss’ own, Ozpin’s eyes twinkled calmly, somehow giving him the impression of a man who knows everything. “I would like to join you in your vigil, if I may.” 

“Sure thing sir.” Ruby nodded easily, much to Weiss’ displeasure. She said nothing though, not wanting to challenge Ruby’s authority in front of the headmaster, who may well be reporting to her father. 

Yang led the way into Blake’s room without so much as a glance in Weiss’ direction. Inside, the three other members of team RWBY stopped, shocked by what they saw. 

Both of Blake’s legs and her left arm were in casts, her face was cut up as if it had been repeatedly slammed into gravel, and dark bruises covered what little skin was visible on her body. Yang growled loudly, and Weiss wholeheartedly agreed with the sentiment. 

Weiss couldn’t tear her eyes away from Blake. That could have been her. She wasn’t in the safety of Atlas anymore, any one of these days she could end up in a hospital bed as well. She’d come to Beacon fully aware of the risks associated with being a huntress. This was different. For the first time in what may be years, she felt a thrill of fear shoot through her because of something other than her father.

The first one to pull themself from their stupor was Yang, who rushed to claim a chair right next to Blake’s head, glowering at anyone who got too close to either of them.

Undeterred, Weiss claimed a seat on the other side of Blake’s bed, matching Yang’s stare with her own. Eventually, Yang seemed to give up, her head slumping down as she pursed her lips. For what felt like the first time since Weiss had met her partner, Ruby didn’t try to get too close to any of them, instead taking a seat at the food of the hospital bed. Ozpin positioned himself a respectful distance away from them all in the corner of the room, from which he watched everything attentively.

No one spoke, instead the team’s collective energy was fixated solely on Blake, whom they had somehow all ended up caring about a great deal, despite the short time in which two of them had known her. As the hours passed Weiss began to feel the stress of the situation and the late hour catching up to her. Her eyes drifted shut before being wrenched back open. Eventually, she forgot to open them again.

###### 

A dull haze of voices surrounded Weiss as she drifted back to wakefulness with a pain in her neck for the second morning in a row, this one caused by the strange angle at which her head rested on the cheap hospital chair. Someone said something to her, but she forgot what it was as soon as they stopped talking.

“Teaaaaa.” Weiss groaned as she stretched awkwardly in her chair and took stock of the situation. She was still in a hospital room with her team and Ozpin, but now there was early morning sunlight coming in through a window. Someone shoved a mug of something hot into her hands, and she took a sip. It was technically tea, but it tasted like a mixture of dirt and caffeine. She gulped it down greedily, draining the mug in a single breath.

“Welcome back to the land of the living, Miss Schnee.” Ozpin commented good-naturedly from his position in the corner of the room. “You are the last of your team to wake up.”

Weiss squinted as she processed the statement, then her body jerked as she turned to look at Blake. Blake waved lightly with her intact hand. Oddly, she was still wearing her bow.

“Right.” Weiss forcefully shook off the last dregs of sleepiness. “So what happened last night?”

Blake grimaced, suddenly turning whiter than she had been before. “Yang and I had a fight, and then I ran off to the library. A man lured me out into the gardens and tried to kill me. I lost, and I was about to die. I’m not sure what happened after that.”

“I found her at the last second, got my ass kicked too, and then my mom saved us.” Yang finished the story succinctly.

“Your mother? How was she here? Is she a member of the faculty?” Weiss had several more questions about the story, but this one was the most major.

“No, her semblance lets her make a portal to anyone she’s close with at will. It also lets her sense how the people she’s connected to are doing, meaning that she could tell that my aura got broken and she came to protect me.” 

“With that cleared up,” Ozpin inserted himself into the conversation, “may I ask why it was that you followed this man from the library into the gardens?” 

“I-“ Blake’s eyes widened and her jaw clenched. “That’s personal. I can’t tell you.” 

From behind Ozpin’s back, Weiss pointedly raised a single eyebrow at Blake, then pointed to her teeth. Blake nodded once. Weiss deliberately softened her gaze, just for a moment. Whoever it had been was associated with the person Blake had killed. It was probably revenge. 

By the time Ozpin took notice of this exchange, Weiss had made herself carefully neutral once again. Still, his gaze seemed to convey that strange sense of knowingness. “And you are determined to keep this hidden?”

“Yes.” Blake couldn’t look at anything but the sheets of her hospital bed. 

“I suppose that I will have to accept that, for now.” Ozpin rubbed his brow. “However, I recommend that you consider the potential danger withholding this information puts both you and your teammates into. I’ve checked the security camera footage, and that was none other than Roman Torchwick, a wanted criminal here in Vale. Of yet I don’t know how he was able to enter the campus, but I assure you, I will take what measures I must to protect my students. I am responsible for your safety at this school, it is my failure, please do not blame yourselves for what has happened.” 

“Easier said than done, boss man.” Yang sighed. 

“I will leave you to deal with this as a team.” Ozpin nodded solemnly and left, his cane tapping against the floor with every other step. 

“Blake, what’s going on?” With Ozpin gone, Yang stopped holding herself back, fear and worry turning her question into a stressed whine. Tears were pricking at the corners of her eyes.

As much as she could with three limbs restricted, Blake sank into the bed, fear plastered across her face. It took a long time for her to answer. “This Roman Torchwick guy, when I saw him in the library, I followed him because...” she hastily made eye contact with Weiss, “before we left the you-know-what, the reason why I finally realized we needed to leave was because I killed him.”

###### Ruby

This made no sense. None of it made sense, it was the worst, most impossible thing Ruby had ever heard. Blake couldn’t have killed someone, she had been so kind and gentle, attentive even, for the entire time that Ruby had known her. It wasn’t possible. Blake had even listened to her talk about her special interests for hours! Nobody did that except her parents and Uncle Qrow.

“What!” Yang slammed her fist against the chair she was in, and a slight crack rang through the room. “What the fuck did A-you-know-who do? What did he do!” Her eyes had turned red, though her anger didn’t seem to be directed at Blake.

At the same time Weiss stared at Blake in outright shock. “Are you saying that you killed Roman Torchwick? And that by all appearances he has now come to kill you?” Well that couldn’t be right, Blake had to mean that it was someone associated with Roman.

“You-know-who tricked me, but it was still my fault.” Blake sobbed, finally breaking into tears, sobs wracking her entire body. “I almost let him kill me. Should I have just done that? Would that have been better?”

“Blake! Don’t even think like that!” Ruby stormed over, she couldn’t take this anymore. “I don’t care what you did. You’re a great person and I’m glad to have you on my team. Besides, if he tried to kill you he obviously isn’t dead, silly. So it’s okay, you didn’t kill anyone.” 

“I-“ Blake’s entire train of thought stopped, and she squinted. “I... oh, Huh. That’s... right. I feel really stupid right now.” There were still tears forming in her eyes, but she seemed to have shifted her perspective. “At first I thought I was just going crazy, but you’re right. Dead people can’t beat you to a bloody pulp.” Blake giggled, then threw her head back and started roaring with a kind of laughter that worried Ruby, though less than what had been saying up until this point. 

“Ow!” After a particularly forceful laugh, Blake winced. “Damnit, that hurts.”

One single chuckle filled the room, it’s origin was Yang, who had started grinning uncontrollably. “What the fuck?” She burst out into giggles, and Ruby followed her. 

Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby thought that she saw Weiss smile for a moment, but it disappeared before she could be sure. 

“This is insane, you people are insane. I’ve known you for five days and my life has already become an embodiment of pure chaos.” Somehow, there was no venom to Weiss’ statement, instead she just sounded grimly resigned. 

“We’re great, huh? I think we can do a lot together.” Ruby smiled, looking at her team members, who were all in various stages of humor, distress, or both. 

“I mean, you do gotta be a bit crazy to want to be a huntress in the first place.” Yang rapped her knuckles against her skull. “I know I sure fit the bill.”

Ruby spun her left hand at the wrist at a high speed, grinning recklessly as the servos in her arm whirred. “Me too.” 

“Well, gee. I thought I was crazy for a little while there, but now I’m not so sure. Sorry, looks like I’ll have to drop out.” Blake quipped. 

“I suppose that it would be laughable for me to pretend to be in a state of what may be considered to be good mental health.” Weiss places a hand on her brow, rubbing the scar along her eye. 

“It is my fault this happened though,” Yang hung her head, “you were right, Blake. I was acting like him. If I hadn’t we would have just had a normal evening, without anyone almost dying.” 

“Hey, no.” Blake’s intact hand began to comb through Yang’s hair. “No what-if’s. Apologize by being better from here on out.” 

Yang shook her head, awestruck. “Alright.” She looked up at Weiss. “I’m sorry about some of what I’ve said to you, from here on I’ll try to look past your family name.” 

Weiss blinked once. “Thank you. However, rather than looking past it, I would like you to look to me as the one who defines it. It was my _maternal_ grandfather who founded the SDC, and I _will_ restore the honor that has been tarnished by my father.” 

“If you want me to believe that, you’re going to have to put a lot of effort into learning about Faunus history, and our socio-economic situation.” Yang’s gaze remained calm. 

“Will you teach me?” 

“And me?” Ruby interjected before Yang could respond. “I need to learn too.”

“What do you need to learn more for?” Yang tilted her head towards Ruby. 

“On Patch I never had to deal with people being racist, but I also haven’t really been around many Faunus other than my mom, and she didn’t teach me much of anything about us either. So I don’t really know much of anything about our history, or the way the rest of the world is yet. I want to be a huntress who saves everyone, and I want to make a difference in every way I can, so I need to know what exactly is wrong with the Schnee Dust Company. Because then maybe I could find a way to help.” Ruby smiled shyly. She had spent her time absorbed in her special interests on Patch, one of which being a huntress, but she hadn’t realized that she needed to know more about the rest of the world to be able to be a good huntress until she’d heard Yang accusing Weiss over the things the SDC did. 

“Well, I’m flattered by the sentiment, really.” Yang chuckled. “But I don’t really have that much knowledge on the subject either. Mostly just bits and pieces from hanging around other Faunus for the last two years. There is someone who might want to teach you though. Someone who’s been living, breathing, and fighting for equality and justice since they were born. But I’ll have to ask them before I can point you in their direction.”

“She’s talking about me.” Blake smiled and shook her head ruefully. “I was well educated because my parents are Faunus. They were also activists, and I’ve been doing my best to follow in their footsteps. I’ll teach you, if you want.”

“That would be amazing, thanks Blake!” Ruby clapped her hands excitedly. She could probably manage to learn this stuff too. After all, it’s not like classes would be all that hard if they were anything like Signal.

“I suppose that you are the best tutor available to me at the time.” Weiss smiled minutely at Blake.

“I’ll try to figure out where to start when I can use both my arms again.” Blake nodded. “I guess it’ll give me something to think about while I’m stuck here anyway.”

“How long will you be stuck here?” Weiss asked as Yang let her head rest against Blake’s chest.

“Supposed to be more than a week before the casts can come off, but I think it might actually come along a little bit more quickly than that. They’re supposed to get me into a powered wheelchair tomorrow.” 

“Oh man. Do we need to do the things that are happening today?” Ruby looked at her scroll. It was already nearly noon. They’d missed whatever had been scheduled for the morning. “Well, I guess we should probably at least go eat lunch, considering that none of us have eaten since dinner or lunch yesterday. Actually, no.” Ruby squared her shoulders, there was taking care of people to do. “Weiss, Yang, you two are coming with me and we’re eating lunch. You are not skipping meals.”

“I don’t think I can cook anything right now.” Yang groaned from her spot slightly on top of Blake.

“Then we’ll go to the cafeteria, you haven’t eaten anything in a day.”

“Oh. I hadn’t noticed.” Yang sat up. “Oh wow. I’m really fucking hungry. But is it okay if we go?” She looked at Blake with concern.

“Go, go. But ask them to get me food as you do.” Blake waved Yang away.

“Alright.” Yang got up and started to walk to the door, then turned around, giving one last small wave. “Bye.”

Ruby and Weiss followed suit as they left, saying their goodbyes before heading off to satiate their hunger.


	8. Daughters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a deviation from the norm. Just a little something to keep you on your toes.

###### Cinder

“We’re running behind schedule, I need more time to steal all this dust.” Adam Taurus whined from the other side of Cinder’s scroll. She nearly gripped it tightly enough to crack the glass.

“Well, maybe if you hadn’t gotten Roman Torchwick killed just so that you could manipulate his little pet murder-gremlin into assassinating your ex-girlfriend if she ever decided to run away from you, you wouldn’t be running behind quotia, now would you? A plan that didn’t even fucking work!” Cinder’s voice was icy, she was incredibly tired of Adam complaining about the mess he was responsible for creating in the first place. “I needed Torchwick, you idiot, so if you can’t reach double your quota by the end of the next week, I will make bison hot dogs out of your ass!”

A sharp whistle came from one of the corners of the shadowy storage room Cinder had made into her temporary center of operation. Losing Roman had also meant losing access to his many safehouses and bases of operation, including the ones where he had been keeping his extensive plans. Just another pain in the ass. Cinder turned to the noise, fully prepared to incinerate whoever had whistled in the middle of her scolding of Taurus. 

Except that, to Cinder’s abject shock, from out of those shadows walked Roman Torchwick, casually twirling his cane. “Cinder, darling, I’m flattered, truly, but you _know_ I don’t swing that way. Although, as Papa Torchwick always said, always have sex with the boss. Do you think Alucard would be interested in your stead? I'll send you a recording, if you like. Also, you do realize that bison and bulls are two different animals, yes?” 

Cinder hung up the call, disregarding Adam’s angry ranting. “Just when I was beginning to hope that I would never have to see your miserable face again.” She glared, not bothering to restrain her hatred for the ass standing in front of her.

Roman rolled his eyes. “Did you really think that something as trivial as dying would stop me from making the best money of my life?” 

“How are you here, instead of in whatever miserable afterlife you deserve?” 

“You aren’t the only one with friends in high places.” Roman bowed sarcastically, tipping his hat. “They really did do an excellent job, I feel years younger. Probably because I’m not made out of meat anymore. Meat bodies are so troublesome, although I think I will miss being able to eat a good steak. It’s ironic, really.” 

“Spare me the bullshit and get to work. We’re behind quota.” Cinder threw a folder full of intel at him indifferently. “Here’s the short version of what you missed.”

“Nope, this is still your problem Little Match Girl. I’ve got business to take care of.” Roman winked as he started backing into a wall. “I’ll be back in a few days, and when I am I expect double what you were paying me before, as compensation for killing me. Oh, and tell Alucard what an utter fucking idiot he looks like in those clothes, seriously, just because he’s a vampire doesn’t mean he has to dress like one.” Without a care in the world, he walked through the wall, disappearing.

###### Neo

Neo fell limply onto the floor of her favorite safe house, the one Roman always kept well stocked with strawberry ice cream. Two people had gotten in her way, it just wasn’t fair. All she had wanted was to get revenge for Roman’s death, it should have been simple. But no, that loud blond idiot just had to get in the way, and then somehow summon her mother, who also happened to be the strongest person Neo had ever seen, right when she got taken down. 

To be honest, Neo was still a little bit terrified of the woman who had appeared. Her red eyes had glinted with murder in a way that she recognized in herself. But Neo had always been able to tell how strong an enemy was by looking at them, and somehow the mother was even stronger than Cinder. 

She wanted ice cream, but she didn’t deserve it. So instead she just lay there. Her plans were shot, luring Blake out on her own wouldn’t work again, and she wasn’t really the one who planned things, Roman was. She didn’t know what to do. 

“Oh, Neo! Are you here? Guess who’s enjoying the _hell_ out of being discorporated?” A voice that sounded like Roman rang through the house, making Neo shoot up into a sitting position. 

The safe house was one of the few Roman kept that was actually a house. A cheap town home in one of the dirtier parts of Vale. Through some unspoken agreement, he and Neo had kept the entire thing rather... domestic. There were no scattered villainous plans or maps about, just a shag carpet and some normal furniture, only for the sake of subtlety, of course. They kept the freezer and pantry well stocked with perishables as well. 

As Neo stared at the entrance to the living room she was laying in, she wasn’t sure what to feel. All she knew was that her heart was racing and her parasol was in her hands, ready to smite this imposter. 

But he didn’t walk through the entrance, no, he walked into the room by walking through the wall two feet to the left of the entrance, wearing a genuine smile that was reserved only for her. “Neo! Sorry I was gone, turns out being a ghost that can inter-ack!” 

Neo whacked Roman over the head with her parasol, hard. Then she did it again for good measure. Then she glared. 

“Okay, okay,” Roman put his hands forward with the palms out, trying to pacify her, “whatever I did, I’m sorry. Also sorry I died. You didn’t get into any trouble while I was away did you?” 

Neo stared blankly at the biggest dum-dum in the world. He stared back, clueless. 

“I... did tell you that I bought death insurance from the Mistral Necromancer’s Guild a few months ago, right? So that they would bring me back as a ghost if I died? Because I expected Match Girl to kill me?” Roman squinted, realizing his mistake. “Oh.” 

She whacked him on the head again. 

“You know, I actually don’t feel pain anymore.” Roman smiled. “So you can go ahead and keep doing that until you’re feeling better. The only thing it’ll hurt is my feelings.” 

With a pout, Neo lowered her parasol and put it back at her hip. Her hands began to sign out a comeback. _As if you have feelings._

“It hurts my feelings when you say I don’t have feelings.” Roman pouted back sarcastically. 

Neo rolled her eyes, then stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him in a hug, squeezing hard enough to break a normal person’s ribs. She wasn’t crying, he was. So what if the tears were on her face for some reason?

“Missed you too Neo.” Roman smiled and put his hand on Neo’s head. “You didn’t get into any trouble while I was away, right?” 

All of a sudden, Neo found herself unable to look at Roman as she stepped back from the hug, it had been warm, even though it was from a ghost. 

“Oh boy. Better get it over with now, what happened?” 

As Neo told Roman the story of her attempted revenge, with plenty of pantomime and illusions, his eyes began to bug out of his head to an increasing degree. When she did finish, he slumped onto the couch, rubbing his brow. 

“I’m not angry with you, but this is bad. This is really bad. You tried to kill Mama Bird’s kid. She’s going to try to get revenge.” Roman rubbed his brow. “Okay, well, hopefully her scroll number hasn’t changed.” He pulled out his scroll and started an audio call. On the last ring, someone picked up, and he held the scroll up to his head. 

“Roman Torchwick. Your fence. Yes I’m still your fence, I just hired a guy to pick things up for me five years ago because you scare the dust out of me.” Roman winced as something was said on the other end of the line. 

“Well that’s just great, I’m delighted to know that you can actually crack a joke. Look, it’s about the incident with your daughter and, uh,” Roman looked at Neo for a name, and she signed one, “her emotional support bisexual.” He winced harder, then glared at her. _Not helping,_ he mouthed. “Yes, that was one of my associates.”

Being called an associate felt like a demotion, and Neo found herself not regretting relaying the name that her target from the previous night had been called. 

“Can we meet in person? This whole kerfuffle is really just a big misunderstanding, I’m sure we can talk out some sort of peace agreement.” Roman nodded animatedly, his shoulders relaxing slightly in response to whatever was said. 

“Thank you. I’ll be there right away.” Roman sighed and put away his scroll before turning back to Neo. “So, yeah. She’s on the warpath, and if I can’t get her off of it, she’ll probably kill you.” He gulped nervously, but his eyes hardened with determination. “I’ll do whatever I have to, you’re going to be fine, I promise. Okay, Neo?”

Neo nodded. She gave Roman one last hug before he left. At least he couldn’t die a second time.

###### Yang

Thanks to lingering thoughts of and concern for Blake, lunch was a dreary affair. Yang was technically completely recovered, but she was still tired. She wished that Raven hadn’t left so quickly, it would have been nice to tell her about how things were going. Later, she would have to ask Ruby what had scared Raven off. She’d been out of it enough that she hadn’t really followed their conversation. 

After lunch was another staff presentation, this one equal part needlessly lengthy and utterly meaningless. It was a review of the school’s inclusive policies and everything that was done in response to racism and the like. From Goodwitch’s actions at team announcements, Yang figured that they probably were genuine about wanting to help, but that probably wasn’t going to stop assholes from existing in the first place.

At some point Ruby pointed team JNPR in Blake’s direction, and briefly explained the situation, to the other team’s distress. Nora had threatened to break Torchwick’s legs, and Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren agreed, each in their own way. As far as Yang was concerned though, there was no need to stop at the legs. He was a wanted and infamous criminal, might as well just kill him. She didn’t share Blake’s reservations about killing people as a general rule, although Raven had, rather hypocritically, tried to teach her otherwise, she just didn’t see the problem with killing people who have made it clear that they intend to kill you or your friends.

Yang wandered off as Ruby and Weiss went back to the dorm room to relax some, though only after agreeing to visit Blake once again, this time with a deck of cards, in the evening. She needed time on her own, so much had happened. Something was happening with Blake, but none of it made any sense yet. What could Blake tell Weiss that she couldn’t tell her? Adam was probably involved. That at least was enough to make Yang certain that if she ever saw Adam again she would be perfectly satisfied with killing him.

Without even meaning to, Yang wandered back to that same spot in the gardens where everything had happened the night before, so she lay down. She may have dozed, troubled thoughts drifting through her head under the lazy afternoon sun as she lay in a patch of grass. It wasn’t until a familiar red and black tear started to form a few feet away that she jolted back to reality, a smile twitching at her lips.

“Hey mom.” Yang waved, not bothering to stand up. 

“Yang.” Raven nodded tersely. She started to turn away, then paused and looked over her shoulder uncertainly at Yang. “I’m only using you as a contact point to get into Vale for some business, but we could talk first, if you like.”

“Of course I want to talk.” Yang smiled sadly. “I’d hoped you would visit sooner.”

“You know I’m not much of a talker.” Raven sat down as Yang sat up, mirroring her position on the warm grass.

“I know.” Yang smiled again, wider this time. “I’m mostly just glad to see you again.”

“Me too.” Raven smiled back, albeit awkwardly.

“So, why’d you run away scared after Ruby showed up?”

“Scared?” Raven scoffed. “I wasn’t scared of some greenskin huntress wannabe.”

“What were you scared of?”

“Old memories. Painful ones.” Raven averted her eyes, and for a moment she looked older than she really was. “Ask Ruby if you have to know.”

“Sorry.” Yang knew Raven had gone to Beacon, but that was all she ever said about her days as a huntress. Ruby had said her parents were both hunters, so Ruby was probably related to someone Raven knew. It was an interesting coincidence. 

“Don’t be. There are a lot of things I probably should have told you by now, that’s only a part of it.” Raven shook her head as if to clear it. “Speaking of, have you read that letter yet?”

“Nope.” Yang pulled the letter in question out of the inner pocket of her jacket. It was browned and wrinkled, but intact. “I still don’t intend to.”

“It’s probably better that way.” Raven looked subtly relieved.

“Don’t you want to know about what I’ve been up to?” Yang changed the subject as she slipped the letter back into its pocket. 

“ _No_ , I don’t want to listen to my beloved daughter tell me about the last two years of her life that I’ve missed out on.” Raven rolled her eyes, relaxing back into her usual snarky demeanor. 

“Everything?”

“As much as you like, I am making someone wait on me, but I have a feeling I’ll be back. Just coincidentally, for business of course, I’d much rather use you for a portal than Oz.” 

“What’s wrong with Ozpin?” 

Raven sighed heavily, her posture briefly slumping once again before she straightened up. “Just trust me, he can’t be trusted. The specifics will only put you into more danger.” 

“Okay. I’ll be careful.” Yang nodded. Her impression on Ozpin so far has been good, but she would be careful of him. 

“So, how’s school been treating you?” Raven awkwardly pivoted the conversation back to what she’d missed. 

“It’s been... a mess.” Yang started to retell everything that had happened in the last few days, starting with her arrival the day before initiation. She didn’t hold back, not in the slightest. All the confusion, conflict, fears, growing determination, and mistakes she’d made just came pouring out under the warm attention of her mom. 

“Well,” Raven chuckled as Yang finished telling her story so far, “you’re certainly doing a lot better than I was at your age.”

“Really?” Yang couldn’t even imagine her mom not being as strong as she was now, even if it must have happened at some point. “I feel like a failure.”

“I’m proud of you, Yang. Really.” Raven pulled Yang forward into a hug. “You’re everything I never had the chance to be. Bright, courageous, strong, kind. I can’t imagine how a person like me was able to raise a daughter like you.” If Yang didn’t know better, she would almost think that Raven was on the verge of tears.

“Thanks, mom.”

“Anytime.” Raven patted Yang on the back gently, then pulled away. “I should probably go,” her face suddenly darkened, “the asshole I’m here to meet is probably shitting his pants at this point waiting for me. Not that he doesn’t deserve it.”

“Alright. I’m glad you came.” Yang sighed contentedly. She really, really was. It felt like things had been lifted off of her shoulders, just a little bit.

“Me too.” Raven started walking away. 

It felt weird to see her just walk somewhere. Was that how she got around without a conveniently located portal focus near her destination? So much of the time Yang had spent around her she used portals to get around. Yang shrugged, and stood up. She wanted to be with Blake.

###### Roman

The only reason why Roman was not shitting his pants was the fact that he no longer shat. Also, his pants were technically just a part of his body that he had shaped into looking like pants. Technically speaking, he was perpetually naked. It was thoughts like that that allowed him to keep his casual demeanor in the oddly public park that Mama Bird had asked him to meet her in.

Distantly, he wondered if she was watching him right now, or if she just enjoyed making him squirm as he waited for the meeting that had been promised to him as being as soon as possible, but was now running more than an hour and a half late. She did seem like the sadistic type, maybe he could use that. 

“I forgot how idiotic your suit is. You look like a frostbitten peach.”

Roman jumped as the scariest person he had ever dealt with suddenly insulted him from three feet behind his back. How the hell had she even managed to sneak up on him? Well, there were plenty of very good reasons why she was scary, just time to add another to the list. 

“Yes, well, it’s meant to attract men of taste, and you are neither a man, nor do you have taste, Mama Bird.” Roman recovered quickly, turning around to face one very displeased Mama Bird with a flippant smile. “Seriously, you aren’t as bad as this one guy I know, but black and red is so cliche. Although I will give you that the thigh highs are a good touch.”

“Why did your _associate_ try to kill my daughter?” Mama Bird wasted no time getting to the heart of the matter, her glare threatening that she would get to Roman’s heart with her sword. Good thing he didn’t have one anymore.

“So you see, it all started when I was murdered by your daughter’s best friend-”

Roman was interrupted by Mama Bird’s sword pressing against his neck. If he was corporeal, he would be very intimidated.

“Stop spewing your idiotic garbage and tell me what actually happened.”

“No, seriously. I died. I’m a ghost now. Just a fancy one that can do almost as much as a living person.” Roman moved his head forward and phased his neck around the blade, back and forth. “See? Incorporeal.”

“What the hell?” Raven continued to glare as she sheathed her sword, but now it was more in confusion than anger. “I’ve never dealt with a ghost so solid before.”

“Like I said, I paid good money to be a high quality earthbound spirit. Can’t tell you exactly what kind of course, then you’d know how to exorcise me.” Roman wagged his eyebrows, this was good, he was getting her off balance.

“Fine, continue.”

“Short version is that Kitty-Cat killed me, my associate tried to get revenge by killing Kitty-Cat, and your kid got in her way. Thing is, it really isn’t Kitty-Cat’s fault that I died so much as one of my business partners, so the grudge is cleared over, it's all fine, and I’m perfectly ready to declare peace.” 

Raven grabbed Roman by the lapel and brought his face up to hers, red eyes practically burning a hole in his ectoplasm. “You think that’s good enough to make up for almost killing Yang? If you want peace, the price is surrendering your associate to me, so that I can execute her.”

For an instant, genuine fear flashed across Roman’s face. That couldn’t happen, there had to be another way. “Come on, I’m a man with many resources, and she’s my best fighter, there has to be something else you want.”

“I want the girl who tried to kill my daughter, in handcuffs, screaming in pain as I slowly carve her into pieces.” Raven threw him to the ground, where he stayed, not daring to stand back up.

“Okay, so first of all, she’s mute.” Roman took a deep breath, time for his second to last resort. He got on his knees and begged. “Secondly, please, please, please don’t kill her, I’ll do anything!”

She just looked at him with disgust. “You don’t even have any dignity, do you?”

“Dignity and an empty sack is worth the sack.” Roman tried putting on the old charm one last time, in case it might break through this woman’s defences.

“And you’re worth nothing to me.” Raven started to turn away.

“Wait!” Roman gulped, there was still one trick up his sleeve. Maybe he could still crack her icy hatred. “You’re a parent. You know what it’s like to have someone you care about more than your own life, don’t you?” He hated having to do this, hated it so much.

Raven stopped. Slowly, she turned her head, her eyes burning with wrath beyond even his comprehension. The Nevermore feather at her waist danced in a breeze that didn’t exist. “What are you saying?”

“Neo is that person to me. Okay? I’ll do anything you want, because she’s all that matters to me!” As Roman said it, he realized that he wasn’t even lying. He hated admitting to this. He would have broken down crying if he was alive. He wished that he was alive. 

“Fine. But if you ever put my daughter or her team in danger again, I will hunt her down and kill her.”

“I understand.” Roman went limp. He’d done it, and Mama Bird didn’t even want anything from him. After all, what were the chances that he’d end up butting heads with a couple of bratty huntresses-in-training? Neo was safe.


	9. Dust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Awww, yeah. There are some classes starting in here, and with the beginning of classes comes the beginning of the in-depth worldbuilding, though I do promise it'll be plenty broken up with drama and other things.

###### Blake

“Look, Claudia going to Schlongtown was a great plot line. But there was no real character motivation for her to do it. It just doesn’t make sense.” Blake griped at Ren from her hospital bed. They were having an impromptu book club in which Nora, who hadn’t read any of the Ninjas of Love books, occasionally chimed in and argued just for the sake of arguing. It was surprisingly enjoyable.

“Yes she did, she was tired of fighting after the War of the Obelisk. It was a good time to take a break.” Ren shrugged. “Besides, does everything really need to have deep driven motivations? We’re reading these books because they’re fun and trashy.” 

“Yeah! You can only break so many legs before you need to stop and eat some Rencakes.” Nora made a gesture that could easily have been referring to food, or to Ren’s asshole. Considering that Ren nodded in agreement with her, it was probably the former. 

“I... probably would have disagreed with you a few weeks ago.” Blake shot Ren a wry smile. “But, yeah, good point.”

In a way this first week at Beacon was turning out like something of a vacation, aside from the entire near-death experience that Blake was still trying to come to terms with. Ever since running away from her parent’s in favor of staying in the White Fang with Adam, she really hadn’t rested at all. Meaning that she didn’t really take vacations. There had always been more to be done, according to Adam. He wasn’t exactly wrong, but what it was that he was doing was. She just wished she’d realized it sooner.

“Good news everyone!” Yang burst into the room, grinning proudly. “My mom has let me know that she’s taken care of the Roman Torchwick situation.”

“Taken care of?” Ren raised an eyebrow.

“Probably through murder, that’s what she usually does when someone tries to kill me or worse.” Yang shrugged. “Anyway, point is that there’s nothing to worry about anymore!” She smiled broadly.

“Uh, aren’t you just slightly concerned about your mom killing someone in cold blood?” Blake eyed Yang warily. This was something she had never talked about before.

“Look, I grew up spending pretty decent amounts of time in the woods around Mistral on my own to train. I was obviously a minor, and not a wanted criminal, so when hunters attacked me the only reason could be because they knew who my mom was and wanted to use me as a hostage to get the bounty on her.” “Or, well,” Yang’s expression briefly turned dark, “worse things, but nothing ever went wrong for me because mom would portal in and save me. Most of them she just thoroughly intimidated them and they left me alone. After all, you can’t kidnap someone when their extremely strong parent has a permanent connection to them.” 

Subtly, Yang’s eyes tinted just a little bit red. “Some of the people I encountered weren’t like that though. Mistral still has a huge problem with slavers. Even the legitimate huntsmen will end up working with them sometimes. One time it took her a few hours to come get me, because she could feel that I wasn’t in immediate danger. The reason why I wasn’t in immediate danger was because they locked me up in a cage to sell later. When she got there, she ended up killing every single person who was willingly a part of the operation, and I will never hold that against her. We gained about ten new tribe members that day, and a few more people were able to go back to their villages.” 

“So, I guess the point that I’m trying to make here is that sometimes people do things so horrible that no, I don’t take issue with them being killed.” Yang smiled though, her expression softening up again. “But here’s the thing about my mom; she pretends to be a soulless bloodthirsty bandit queen most of the time, but she actually doesn’t kill people unless she has to to keep her family safe. Don’t tell her I said that though, she’ll get mad at me. I’m guessing Roman tried to kill Blake for revenge, and if so, it seems likely she’ll need to kill him to get him to stop. So, yeah, probably dead, and I’m okay with that.”

The room was silent for a long moment, everyone needed time to process Yang’s monologue. 

“Okay.” Blake nodded. “I guess I can understand that. You worried me for a second.” 

“Hey,” Yang took a seat next to Blake’s bed and held her free hand in hers, “if you ever think you need to beat some sense into me, do it. I can take it.”

“I don’t think that a few extra beatings are going to do anything all of the previous beatings you’ve taken haven’t, considering how often you lose.” Blake rolled her eyes.

“Hey, there was only one person who consistently beat me in sparring matches, and I learned a hell of a lot from those losses. Although I may have mostly been fighting him because I hated his guts for what he was doing.” Yang chuckled.

“You... you could tell for that long?” Blake had watched Yang passionately throw herself into sparring with Adam whenever she had a chance for the last six months. At the time she’d thought it was just her working hard to get better at fighting by learning from the best fighter in the Vale branch of the White Fang. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“What could I have said?” Yang shrugged, then glanced at Ren and Nora, who were shifting uncomfortably in their seats, then coughed. “But anyway, what were you guys doing?”

“Nothing! Absolutely nothing.” Blake had managed to keep her filthier literary tastes a secret from Yang so far, and she had no intention of changing that. 

“Right,” Yang raised an eyebrow, but didn’t question further. “Well, anyway, I’m not doing anything else today until we’ve got you relatively up and about in that wheelchair so you can join us for meals and I can cook again.”

“You stopped cooking because I wasn’t there?”

“It’s just not the same if you aren’t there to enjoy it.”

As Blake and Yang talked, Nora stared at them with wide eyes, grabbing tightly to Ren’s arm and whispering loudly. “Ren, look at them. They’re such a good pair, isn’t it romantic? They know each other so well, doesn’t it remind you of any other pair of people who know each other really well?” Her voice sharpened to a point with the last statement, while Ren simply nodded placidly.

“They are very like Lucca and Bertram.” They agreed, missing the point entirely.

“No, we’re just friends, seriously. Just because neither of us is straight and we’re incredibly close doesn’t mean that we’re dating. Besides, I had a boyfriend when we first met anyway.” Blake looked at Yang in exasperation.

“That’s right.” Yang nodded, then cleared her throat. She was thinking about something. Blake was suddenly reminded of when Yang had recommended her to teach Ruby and Weiss about the Faunus. 

“Right. We’re not dating, aren’t going to.” Suddenly there was a lump in Blake’s throat. She swallowed it and focused on Ren and Nora.

“Riiiiiiight.” Nora winked, then Ren frowned at her. “Of course.” She corrected herself quickly.

###### Ruby

Ruby was relieved when Friday finally came. The week had been comparatively dull, probably because the faculty wanted to let students adjust to living on a campus, considering that a lot of them weren’t even from traditional schooling situations. But still, she wanted to get to the meat, the good stuff, learning more about weapons and fighting and probably dust too. There was only so much time she could spend sitting around listening to information about Beacon facilities, safety procedures, and rules for one part of the day, then either hanging out with her team or JNPR, or sitting around listening to music and trying to break through choice paralysis about what game to play at any given moment. 

Friday was not the end of it, of course. It was, however, by far the most interesting day. It was the day that freshman teams would be assigned sophomore mentors. For all the monotonous information that had been thrown at her over the last four days, Ruby still had tons of questions, mostly about being a team leader, and she definitely needed to bombard someone with questions about it. She would feel weird about doing it to anyone who wasn’t obligated to listen to her, and she wanted the teachers to like her, so it was probably better to avoid talking to them candidly, so she intended to bombard her mentor. Except that she wanted to be liked by them too. Ugh, why did interacting with people have to be so hard. 

“Hey Ruby, wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey.” Yang brandished a block of cheese at Ruby. “We’re going to be late if you don’t get up.” Yang was so tall she didn’t even need to stand on anything to look at Ruby when she was in her bunk.

“Up! I’m up!” Ruby sat up instantly, her heart suddenly racing at the thought of being late. She’d completely spaced out worrying about everything. The prospect of bacon did help to sooth those worries. 

The designated sous chef of the day, Weiss, set the table and gave everyone precisely equal amounts of egg and bacon. As they sat down, Yang and Ruby both tried to grab the garlic powder off the table at the same time. Their hands briefly touched, and Ruby quickly pulled hers back. Yang smirked and flirtatiously cocked an eyebrow before taking the powder for herself. 

“Have I mentioned that, while you are a good cook, I find some of your tastes utterly reprehensible.” Weiss glared murderously at the thick layer of garlic that Yang had deposited on top of her eggs. 

“I could always cook the main dishes more to my taste, instead of simply modifying my own.” Yang glared back. 

“If you even think of committing such atrocities to food that I intend to eat, I will baste you like a...” Weiss trailed off as three pairs of eyes turned to stare at her. 

“No. Bad Weiss.” Ruby pouted, she was disappointed in Weiss, but not really that surprised. 

“That’s a completely inappropriate simile.” Blake shook her head. “You might just want to avoid those entirely.”

Yang just glared expectantly at Weiss, her mouth set in a hard line. 

Weiss cleared her throat. “My apologies.” Her face remained stony. 

“You don’t look very apologetic to me.” Yang’s glare only intensified. 

“Hey, whoa, Yang hold on.” Ruby moved herself into Yang’s line of sight. “Don’t you dare try to judge her on her facial expressions.” 

“What?” Anger quickly burned away from Yang, replaced with confusion. 

Ruby swallowed. Now everyone was looking at her. Oh man, she hadn’t wanted to do this so soon, but she also couldn’t let something people had done to her be done to Weiss. She sunk back into her chair. Suddenly, it was hard to speak. “Don’t do that. If Weiss says something, don’t think she doesn’t mean it just because of facial expressions.” 

“Why shouldn’t I?”

“Because,” Ruby concentrated on talking to her breakfast, “you can’t just judge someone’s sincerity on how they look. There are a bunch of reasons why they might not be expressing themself in a way that you expect them to just because of your social conventions.” 

“Are you speaking from experience?” Blake’s voice was cautious.

“Yeah, I am.” Ruby crossed her arms and slunk further into her chair. “Please don’t ask me any other questions.”

“Ruby.” Weiss addressed Ruby calmly. “Thank you.” 

A flush of heat crossed Ruby’s face as she focused on eating. “You’re welcome.”

###### 

After cleaning up from breakfast, Ruby insisted that everyone hurry to get ready slightly more than necessary. She really didn’t want to be unprepared when her mentor and their team arrived. 

There was a knock at the door, and Ruby rushed over to open it in a burst of rose petals. There stood a girl wearing sunglasses indoors, flanked on either side by two men, one a giant, and one tall and lanky.

“Hey, I’m Coco Adel, your mentor and the leader of team CFVY. This is Fox, Yatsu, and Velvet.” Coco gestured to the two people behind her, then to someone hiding behind Yatsu. She held out her hand, but for a moment Ruby just stared dumbly.

This was getting ridiculous. How was every single girl she met so pretty! And Coco was even wearing two ammo belts, across her waist and shoulder, which Ruby only then realized she may have a thing for. 

“Hi,” Ruby ignored the hand and waved instead, it was still way too early in the morning to deal with a handshake. “I’m...” What was her name again? “Ruby! I’m Ruby Rose, leader of team RWBY. This is Blake, Weiss, and Yang.” With the last of her brain cells, she moved out of the doorway to let team CFVY come in.

The last one to shuffle into the room was Velvet, who trailed in closely behind Yatsu, seemingly trying to keep him between her and Weiss. It wasn’t until Ruby noticed a pair of brown bunny ears on top of her head that she understood why.

“You don’t need to avoid Weiss, she’s not like her dad.” Ruby tried to reassure Velvet. “She sort of messes up sometimes, but she doesn’t mean to.”

“Really?” Velvet glanced warily at Weiss, then turned back to Ruby. “Yatsu’s the same way, actually.” She stood up a little straighter. 

“I’ll make sure to hold Yang back if he says anything either then.” Ruby smiled, her wings spreading slightly behind her. 

“And I’ll hold back Coco if Weiss says something.” Velvet mirrored Ruby’s shy smile. 

“Oh hey! You’re the person who pointed me at Blake the other night! Velvet, right?” Yang rushed over excitedly. “Thank you so much, you being there and telling me where to go saved her life. I owe you.”

“Huh?” Velvet only then seemed to realize that Blake was laying in her bed with three limbs in casts. Her eyes widened with concern. “What happened?”

“I got attacked the other night, barely saved by Yang’s mom, and well... this.” Blake shrugged. “I’m pretty sure I’ll be all healed up in a couple more days.”

“Sounds like you’ve already gotten into more trouble than we did in our first week, between that and the fight between Yang and Weiss.” Coco nodded approvingly. “That was a pretty impressive fight, for a couple of freshmen.”

“Are you saying that you could do better?” Yang grinned cockily.

“Oh, I’ll show you better later.” Coco smirked right back at Yang. “But, hey, let’s just get to know each other first. Can’t really train with only seven people anyway.” 

Ruby mostly listened as people started to interact with each other. Being in a room with eight people made it hard for her to participate in any conversation, but that was alright because she was paralyzed by trying to think about whether she should share her doubts and questions about being a leader with Coco in the first place, and how she would if she did. 

In the end, team CFVY left before Ruby could get herself together, though not before everyone shared contact information. Maybe it would be easier to ask indirectly. Well, no. That would almost certainly end in an episode of rejection sensitive dysphoria. 

For the rest of the weekend, Ruby resigned herself to not really being sure what she was doing as the leader. She kept hoping Coco would notice her distress and pull her aside, but she never did.

###### Weiss

Weiss cursed Glynda Goodwitch’s unholy name. Or at least, she would, if it wasn’t six in the bloody morning and she therefore had some amount of energy with which to do so. The entire Freshman class had Tournament Combat Training with Professor Goodwitch from eight to ten in the morning, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. More senior classes had their combat training with Goodwitch progressively later in the day, and Weiss was therefore convinced that it was a form of indirect hazing. 

Normally, Weiss would only need to wake up at seven, she was perfectly capable of preparing for the day quickly. Yang, however, apparently needed to begin her day at six, and when Yang got up, there was no possible way to remain in sleep’s embrace. It was like trying to sleep through a stampede of sabyrs. 

Blake had been released from her casts and declared fully healed just yesterday, to the surprise of the entire medical staff, meaning that she was combat ready just in time for their first combat classes. Vampiric healing powers must be nice to have.

Ultimately, Weiss found herself fully prepared for the day well before anyone else. Naturally, she used that time to catch up on current events, as was expected of her. What she found turned out to be relevant to everyone in the room. 

“Guys, you should all hear this. Roman Torchwick is committing large scale dust robberies again, and this time it’s being done in tandem with the White Fang.” 

“What?” Blake and Yang turned to face Weiss in tandem, matching looks of shock on their faces. They shared a glance. 

“That... can’t be right. They wouldn’t work with a human.” Yang shook her head. “They’re radicals, there’s no way something like that would just happen.”

“There’s a great deal of security footage from local dust stores showing him and a team of White Fang goons packing up all the dust in a shop at gunpoint. This is what’s happening.” Weiss shrugged. 

“What do you mean that he’s committing them again?” Ruby asked. 

“It says that up until about three weeks ago he was stealing large amounts of dust with the assistance of largely human associates.” Weiss showed the room a picture of Roman’s old employees, or whatever they were. 

“Three weeks ago?” Yang glanced at Blake questioningly. “And... hey wait! I recognize those guys. They work for Junior. Oh man, that takes me back.” She chuckled. 

“Should I be concerned about your criminal contacts?”

“Not at all. Those were the old days, I’m completely dedicated to the gay and narrow now. As long as Blake is, anyway.” Yang chuckled at her wordplay. 

“You’re neither gay nor narrow.” Blake poked Yang’s abs to make her point. 

“Oh shush, it’s just an expression.” Yang booped Blake on the nose in retaliation. 

“If you two are done flirting, shall we return to the subject of Roman Torchwick? I would expect that this would be rather important to you, _Blake_.” Weiss’ words came out as angrily as she suddenly felt. 

“What!” Blake looked scared for a moment. “Oh, you mean because of Roman. I _would_ like to see him locked up. But it’s not really any of our business, I mean, the city is full of hunters and huntresses way more qualified than us, what could we do?” She shrugged helplessly. 

“That is the most reasonable thing you have ever said to me.” Weiss nodded. “However, given that despite years of violent activity, any kingdom’s forces have yet to eliminate a single White Fang cell, I find it doubtful that that will happen.” 

“We could follow my lead if nothing happens on that front for a while.” Yang suggested. “Although I’d really rather focus on school before we did something crazy like that.”

“And I bet I could infiltrate a White Fang meeting or something to try and figure out why they’re working together!” Ruby had stars in her eyes. “That would be exciting.” 

“Absolutely not.” Weiss almost felt like she needed to pinch Ruby’s ear to keep her in check. “Schoolwork comes first, I will not even allow any of you to consider something so reckless and irresponsible until you all have adequate and consistently high grades, lest you drag me down academically.” 

“Aww.” Ruby deflated a little, bit Yang and Blake nodded in agreement. 

“I’m sure the situation is under control anyway.” Blake comfortingly patted Ruby on the shoulder.

###### 

By the time all of team RWBY was ready to go to class, most of which was taken up by Yang, who spent an hour in the shower taking care of her hair, they had just enough time to reach the combat arena in time for class at a walk, instead of a run. It was more than slightly surprising, given the chaotic nature those three seemed to embody, each in their own way.

Along the way, a group of four people Weiss recognized from the team announcements as team CRDL began to walk in step with them. It didn’t take long before the leader, Cardin Winchester, decided that he had something to say. 

“Hey princess, you’re a pretty good singer and a very beautiful woman, so how about you come back to my dorm after this class and I make you sing for me?” He winked. 

Weiss stopped walking. The seven people around her stopped a moment later. Normally, she would easily deliver forth a scathing rebuttal and walk away, confident in her superiority to this disgusting, vulgar man. But the fact that he had brought up her singing struck a much deeper chord in her. It once again reminded her that everything she was was not her own, just when she was beginning to find a brief glimpse of what it felt like to forget. 

Everything at Beacon was going horribly wrong, and it wasn’t yet even the first day of class. She had failed to win a fight against a Faunus with no formal training of any kind, and failed to perform well enough in initiation to be assigned as team leader, once again falling short of a Faunus. If her father found out about any one of these it would not plausibly be enough to justify his removal of her from Beacon. After all, defeating the Arma Gigas had been the striking of a deal that she would go to Beacon as long as she was academically successful. A deal is a deal, but only until a better one comes along. It would almost certainly mean that he would begin searching for a new deal, preparing to strike the moment Weiss slipped in the least. And she could potentially be made to “entertain” that deal, not to mention enduring his inevitable words of scorn and the assurance of punishment. 

So Weiss stood there, enduring a sudden wave of terror (of her father), anger (with Yang and Ruby), disgust (at the proposition), and self-loathing. She stood there speechlessly for long enough that Cardin developed the idea that he could answer for her. 

“Stunned speechless, huh? Can’t say I blame you.” Cardin sauntered over to the catcalls of his own team, and the growing dismay of Weiss’. Then he placed a hand on her hip. 

That was enough to shock Weiss from her thoughts. “Get away from me!” She quickly stepped away from Cardin, barely in control of her voice. She didn’t dare say anything else, lest she lose control of herself, instead she focused on the ground, trying not to think. 

“You need to get the fuck away from us, you flaming pile of shit. You’re starting up a fight that you can’t win.” Yang’s voice was as violent as it had ever been as she stepped between Weiss and Cardin with her wings spread, creating a physical curtain that separated them. One for which Weiss was incredibly grateful. 

“Oh? Does the animal want to lecture me on shit? Tell me, do you have a cloaca to go with those wings?” The smirk in Cardin’s voice was perfectly audible. 

Weiss could have sworn that Yang’s hair started to glow, then she heard the sound of her weapon being drawn. Before anything more could develop, Ruby rushed forward and grabbed Yang’s arm. 

“Yang, come on, we need to get to class.” She spoke gently, but there was an uncertain hint of command to it. 

“Fine.” Yang glowered at Cardin, but let herself be led away. Weiss trailed close behind her, and Blake carefully kept herself between Cardin and Weiss, even as further verbal abuse was directed toward Ruby and Yang. 

“Are you okay?” Once they were out of earshot, Blake murmured carefully to Weiss. 

“Of course not.” Unconsciously, Weiss had rested her hand at Myrternaster’s hilt at some point. She needed to be alone, so that she could cry. But, well, missing classes would only make her situation worse, so that was certainly not an option at the moment. She would simply have to endure. 

“Sorry.” Blake started to distance herself from her protective position. 

“No, stay nearby.” Not for the first time in the week, Weiss thought back to the other night, and the way Blake had treated her before drinking her blood. She stiffened her posture. “You may stay at my side, if you like.”

“I would.” Blake smiled gently, and walked close beside Weiss the rest of the way to the training arena, though she was careful not to touch her. 

In class, Professor Goodwitch began by quickly going over the rules of tournament combat. They weren’t complicated, the match was called when a participant was lowered below a certain aura level. Aside from that, any style of combat was acceptable. 

“Now, the main purpose of this class will be to demonstrate to you methods of improving teamwork and hone your skills against each other. Therefore, let us begin the combat with our first match of the year. Team CRDL, you will fight team RWBY.” Goodwitch pointed animatedly at each team as she singled them out. 

Before anyone else got up, Yang stood and addressed Goodwitch. “Could I fight them on my own?” 

Goodwitch raised an eyebrow skeptically. “And why should I allow you to do that?”

“I’m worried that Blake might not be fully healed yet, and Ruby isn’t feeling very well. Also, I have a personal grudge that I would like to settle.” Yang glared at Cardin. 

“Very well, if all parties are willing, I’ll allow it. Though keep in mind that if this personal grudge results in injury, the punishment will be harsh.” 

Weiss nodded in approval, she truly did not feel prepared to fight. Then she watched as Yang confidently walked into the arena. It seemed as though Yang’s strongest reactions came about when others were treated poorly. Weiss found that she respected that. 

Once the participants were all in the arena, Yang took up a casual stance that was almost like a boxers, but she didn’t bother putting her arms up, instead letting them swing loosely at her side. 

“Do you really think you can fight all four of us?” Cardin’s repulsively confident voice filled the arena as he strode in. 

“Come at me, you’ll see.” Yang beckoned them closer, just as confident as her opponents. “I’m more than meets the eye.” 

A buzzer sounded, beginning the match. Cardin ordered his team to surround Yang, and they spread out. 

Yang just watched as four people flanked her on each side. “The poor bastards, they’ve surrounded me.” She mused, acting as if she was ignoring them entirely. 

It wasn’t until team CRDL started to draw closer to Yang that they realized their mistake. Rather than wait for them to surround her, she suddenly charged Cardin. He shot a fireball at her from his mace, but like in the fight with Weiss, she shrugged it off without a care. This time however, Weiss saw exactly what happened. A thin layer of ice appeared on her, only to be instantly vaporized by the fire, creating a thin layer of water vapor that dissipated almost immediately. She was using the Leidenfrost effect to avoid being harmed by the fire. Weiss was surprised and impressed. Such a precise use of aura channeling was beyond even her, though only at the moment. 

As the fire dissipated Yang was able to surprise her opponent and slug Cardin across the face, something that very nearly tempted Weiss to cheer her teammate on. 

“Miss Branwen has just demonstrated to us why too loose of an encircling formation can be a vulnerability rather than a strength. Charging at one member of a ring of opponents can cause quite a change in the flow of battle, and against Grimm is often preferable to an attempt at fighting while surrounded, as they are naturally skilled in pack tactics.” Goodwitch commented on the fight over the speaker system. 

Yang was able to get in a few more hits before Cardin’s teammates came to back him up, and when they were about to reach her she gracefully slid out of the way, letting Sky’s halberd slip past her and hit Cardin. 

From that point on Yang was largely able to control the fight. She kept her distance until one of her opponents were separated from their team, then harassed them. Team CRDL improved gradually, but Yang was consistently able to break away from them before she could get cornered, and when Cardin went down it became clear who was going to win.

With the leader and heaviest hitter of CRDL out of the way, Yang changed tactics, and jumped into a wild fray with the other three members. She became a whirlwind of blows, throwing dust enhanced blows around constantly, using her wings to block her opponents vision of each other, and generally kicking ass while only taking a few hits, which she shrugged off, losing only a little bit of aura.

When the fight was over, and three people lay groaning on the ground at Yang’s feet while the fourth leaned against a wall glaring angrily at her, she said one last thing before returning to the stands.

“This,” Yang pointed at her opponents, “is what happens to anyone who fucks with me or my team.” The message was clear. 

Weiss realized that she didn’t want to be disliked by Yang.

###### Yang

After Goodwitch’s class, Yang, Blake, and Ruby had Introduction to Dust. Weiss had been placed into the more advanced dust class, which was scheduled at the same time. The classroom was set up as a lab, and at each workstation there was a series of test tubes, a mortar and pestle, and in sealed containers, one small crystal each of fire and gravity dust.

“Good day class, I am Professor Albert Chemy.” Professor Chemy was a small, lethargic man, who’s most prominent facial feature was the large, round, gold-rimmed spectacles that must have been five inches in radius, yet stayed perched perfectly on his face at all times. He could easily have been anywhere from thirty to eighty years old. “Today we will refresh your memory by making a simple dust compound often used in welding. It is seventy-two percent fire dust, and twenty-eight percent gravity dust. When ignited, it both conjoins and welds together two pieces of metal, allowing for much stronger welds than can be done with ordinary methods. If you have any questions, ask away, you will be graded on your product at the end of the class.”

Yang tuned out the students questions and unsealed the two dust crystals. This was way too simple, combining two kinds of dust was easy, even if she had never made this particular compound before. She clasped the crystals between her hands and carefully activated her aura, focusing it into her hands. As soon as she started to combine fragments of the crystals at the ration Professor Chemy had said to use, she could feel that the dust was unstable. Weird, she tried adding more gravity dust on a hunch, and it stabilized. Carefully, she continued the process with the new, slightly more gravity heavy ratio, combining the two types of dust until there was no gravity dust left.

Her hands separated, and she took a moment to appreciate her work. The new dust crystal graduated from a bright crimson on the outside to dark black at the center. There was still a decent amount of fire dust left over, but the dust she had made was the larger of the crystals. 

“Hey, professor Chemy, I could use some more gravity dust. The ratio you gave us was all wrong, it nearly blew up on me.” Yang spoke to her professor, who happened to be right behind her.

“What? Blow up on-” Chemy’s eyes widened. “I said that we were making a dust compound, not a fusion! How did you even manage to make that!” 

“Er, I just combined the dust with my aura. Because that’s how you combine dust.” Yang stared at her professor in confusion.

“Miss Branwen, there are two different methods by which we hunters can craft dust, combination is a physical and chemical process by which two or more types of dust are granulated and combined into uniform powder that utilizes the properties of each kind simultaneously, dust fusion through the aura is a very advanced technique by which two dust crystals are combined into a new kind of dust entirely. It requires a great deal of control over aura, and is not normally taught until advanced dust studies classes. Furthermore, your recklessness has endangered this entire class. That dust crystal is artillery dust, it is only used in the heavy artillery that sits on the walls of kingdoms. I am frankly shocked that you even managed to create it without being told the correct ratios to use in advance.” Professor Chemy sighed deeply. “I am going to have to insist that you be transferred to advanced dust classes, for the safety of this class. Also, hand over the crystal so that I may dispose of it.”

“Okay. Sorry. I was never taught to combine dust chemically.” Yang slumped in her chair. Well, she’d fucked up already. At least she was getting into the advanced class. Wait, did this mean that she was going to be in a class that she only shared with Weiss? Shit. That sounded like an excellent opportunity to be berated for her ignorance. 

“I will speak to Glynda about this, in the meantime, please observe and learn what you can from one of your classmates until the class is over.” Chemy shook his head, muttering about paperwork as he walked into a supply closet with the dust crystal.

“Well. Whoops.” Yang turned to Ruby, who had been watching the entire exchange with wide eyes. “Mind teaching me how to do this stuff?”

“Only if you agree to make some artillery dust for us to use once I design something that can use it.” Ruby grinned maniacally. “The formula is actually a state secret, I’ve been trying to be allowed to buy some for ages.”

“That sounds like a terrible and incredibly dangerous idea.” Yang laughed. “I’m so in.”


	10. Distance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lore and angst in this chapter, two of my favorite things

###### Blake

By Tuesday, Blake was beginning to have trouble concentrating around people again. Although oddly, “people” in this case mostly consisted of Weiss. The scent of Yang and Ruby and their blood was tempting, but neither of the two had scents that seemed to demand her attention in the way that Weiss’ was beginning to. It was practically impossible to focus on reading all through the previous night, instead she found herself wandering to the thought of Weiss, though not necessarily even that of drinking her blood.

Blake resolved to find some time that day in which to feed again, and fortunately the opportunity appeared shortly after breakfast, when Yang went to work out, and Ruby went off to build something in the few hours they had before their first class of the day. 

“Weiss, I think healing made me thirstier than normal, would now be a good time to uh... you know?” Blake gestured at her neck.

“Very well. Though tell me, what other benefits have you obtained thus far?” Weiss set aside her scroll and got up, locking the door to the room from the inside.

“I’m pretty sure I’m stronger and faster, though I’ve been trying to hide most of it and keep about even with Yang. My semblance can also do some new, more advanced things, but I’m pretty sure that using those new abilities would make me thirsty again faster.” Blake stood awkwardly, not really sure what she should do.

“If they benefit us and do not burn through your reserves too quickly, I encourage you to learn to use whatever new abilities you have found. Academic excellence is just as important as combat expertise.” Weiss sat on the edge of her bed and patted a spot next to her with a pointed look.

“You wouldn’t mind if it meant that I would need to do this more often?” Blake hesitantly took the seat.

“I believe that it is important to strike a balance between the risk of discovery that would be created by additional feedings and the boon of enhanced combat capacity, but yes, I am willing to make that exchange.” Weiss nodded thoughtfully.

“Well, I guess I’ll try to train with it a bit. Yang already knows what my semblance does, but this is just a stronger version of that, so it’s not too implausible to say that it developed naturally.” Blake nodded, then looked at Weiss. Their eyes met.

“Well? What are you waiting for?” Weiss raised an eyebrow.

“You, I guess.” Blake shifted slightly away from Weiss. “I feel sort of awkward about this now, last time it was because I could barely control myself any more. This...” she gestured at the two of them, and the bed, “is different.”

Weiss tilted her head impassively. “Very well. Stand up for a moment.” As Blake stood, Weiss took off her bolero and set it aside. Then she lay down in her bed and pointed her chin toward the sky, revealing the pale flesh of her neck. “Does this help?” Her voice shook, only the slightest amount.

Blake swallowed. She hadn’t looked at her before, not really. She hadn’t looked at _Weiss_ , only at Weiss Schnee, in a way that was only somewhat different from the way Yang had looked at her. But, well, fuck. Weiss was beautiful. Her slim stature and subtle curves, they way that her eyes were busy focusing on the bed above her as she bit her lip just the smallest amount, the grace that filled nearly every single movement that she made. It was just an objective fact really, that Weiss was beautiful. And she had just placed herself into a very vulnerable position to help Blake. 

“Yeah. That helps.” Blake’s voice was dry and cracked as she started to lean over Weiss’ bed, despite the drool leaking from the corners of her lips. Weiss’ legs were pressed together tightly as Blake put her knees on either side of Weiss’ torso, then began to lean over her. Slowly, she laid her head into the crook of Weiss’ neck, and nibbled, careful not to break the skin just yet.

“Mhm,” Weiss didn’t quite moan, but it was close, and it was a wonderful sound. Blake’s ears may have flicked happily, even under her bow. More gentle nibbling, then soft kisses pressed right against Weiss’ jugular vein brought forth more small noises. Slowly, Weiss’ hands grabbed hold of Blake, pulling her closer.

That was the moment that Blake sank her fangs into Weiss’ neck. Weiss did moan then, but Blake was already in her own world, a world made entirely of the one hot point of contact where sweet blood and the scent of vanilla and walnuts tinted everything crimson. The feeding was even more intense this time, and for a moment Blake forgot her own disgust in herself and simply enjoyed it. 

Even after some instinct told Blake to stop drinking, she kept her head buried in the crook of Weiss’ neck, gently licking the two puncture wounds left behind as Weiss’ aura quickly healed them. Minutes passed in a comfortable silence that gradually grew uncomfortable as the high faded for both of them. Eventually, Weiss applied slight force to Blake’s head, and she got off of Weiss, scooting to the side so that they faced each other while lying on their sides.

Despite having her head on much straighter than it had been before, Blake couldn’t help but stare and let her mind wander. They were only a few inches apart, what if she moved her head forward, just a little bit? What if Weiss then reciprocated? What if they kissed? Blake stopped breathing. Then she moved her head, slowly, just an inch.

A look of disgust slowly dawned across Weiss’ face as she realized the implications of Blake had just done. She moved her head away, breaking Blake out of her fantasies like a bucket of cold water.

Obviously. Blake got out of Weiss’ bed as quickly as she could without obviously hurrying. What the hell was she thinking? She was the daughter of the Chieftain of Menagerie, and Weiss was a Schnee. Besides, Blake wasn’t romantically interested in Weiss, that would be completely ridiculous. She had said and done far too much for there to be any possibility of that, even if she was trying to learn better. No, obviously there was just some degree of fucked up physical attraction, that much Blake could admit to. Probably a messed up part of herself that still associated feeding with some sort of meaningful intimacy. As if she had ever really had that with Adam.

“Allow me to be clear,” Weiss’ voice was sharp as she sat up in her bed, light blue eyes boring into Blake’s amber, “this is an arrangement of necessity. Any... enjoyment that happens to be derived from the process that we must undergo is simply a side effect, and neither one of us has any interest in doing anything further.”

“Right. Agreed.” Blake nodded. That was for the best, certainly. Whatever it was that she felt, it was just superficial anyway, it had to be. It didn’t really mean anything that Weiss’ rebuttal hurt.

###### Yang

Yang wasn’t entirely sure what she expected History of Huntsmen to be like, but what she got was not it. Doctor Oobleck rushed into the classroom at the last possible second carrying a thermos and looking like a complete mess, only for him to immediately start talking like he was being paid by the word. It was almost incomprehensible, and Yang was barely able to take notes in the brief pauses where he asked for participation from the class.

“Good day class! I’m doctor Oobleck, do remember to address me as a doctor, but enough about me, you’re here for history.” Oobleck flipped over his blackboard to reveal a printed illustration of a woman in a white robe posed dramatically in front of a horde of Grimm. “We shall begin with the beginning. The huntsmans’ tradition begins in Solitas about two thousand five hundred years ago, in the days when humanity was only beginning to discover the uses of dust, and the modern day kingdom capitals were incredibly ambitious for being the first permanent human settlements. According to legend, the kingdom of Atlas initially promised to protect any smaller settlements that formed within a certain distance of the walls that were still in the process of being built. However, this proved to be an overextension of their resources, and they ended up abandoning the village of Chasse.”

“It is said that the soldier Achillea stayed behind and single-handedly defended the village, then taught the children within to fight and hunt Grimm as well. As time passed, many of the children decided that they wanted to protect other villages in positions similar to their own, and they traveled throughout the world, teaching their craft and traditions to others. Nearly all of those ancient traditions are lost to us now, replaced by our modern understandings of tactics, wilderness survival, and by studying the behavior of Grimm. It is also said that Achillea was the first human to unlock their aura, though this is poorly corroborated, and is likely not true, given that humanity is believed to have been present on Remnant for a large amount of time before that.” 

“For the next thousand years hunters slowly grew into a large number of well-respected defenders of those who were outcast and abandoned by the kingdoms, but can anyone tell me what caused the creation of hunters as an organized society?” A lot of hands went up across the room, but Oobleck instead gestured to Yang, who was still fervently trying to write down the important information from his rapid lecture. “Miss Branwen?”

“I have no idea.” Yang shrugged. All she knew about history was a little bit about the Great War, and the Faunus Rights Revolution that she had heard in the Fang, and most of it probably wasn’t completely accurate. “Homeschool, y’know.”

“As glad as I am to see that you have the courage to admit that, I find it very concerning that you lack knowledge of such an ubiquitous and monumental event as The Fall.” Some of the people in the class chuckled, but Oobleck shut them up with a glare. He then flipped over the blackboard once again, and this time there was somehow a map of the continent of Verlorene drawn with excruciating detail in chalk. 

“The Fall of what?” 

“The Fall of Hvelseig, the fifth kingdom, of course.” Oobleck gestured to the map of the continent. “These days Verlorene is densely populated with Grimm, largely dead, and a constant reminder of the danger that constantly lurks beyond the kingdom walls. But once it was home to a bright and flourishing kingdom, much like Vale. It was the Fall and the subsequent rise of Salem, the Mother of Grimm, that catalyzed the kingdoms to begin officially recognising, training, and investing in the efforts of hunters. We do not know where she comes from, or how she acquired the powers she is believed to have, but it is known that she claimed the destroyed kingdom as her own and declared war on the rest of the world, promising salvation to those who followed her.” 

“All that we really know about the Fall itself is that something caused Hvelseig’s walls to be breached, and the entire city was destroyed by Grimm and an army of Grimm-worshipping cultists. Whether it was this that caused Salem to appear, or whether Salem’s appearance caused the city’s destruction is unknown. But, as a result of Salem’s rise Grimm began to pour out of Verlorene at previously unheard of rates, attacking kingdoms and villages with cunning and coordination that often did not fit their maturity. This was known as the Age of Strife, and it lasted for nearly fifty years.”

“Only when Salem herself was defeated by Adam Ozweald, a hunter who was said to be capable of slaying Grimm with nothing more than a glance,” Oobleck flipped over the blackboard once again to show an illustration of a man wearing a black cloak and wielding a halberd, his eyes were silver, “was the massive threat to the kingdoms ended. After that, the work of hunters became increasingly official throughout the kingdoms. This growth eventually led to licensing, regulations, tax breaks, official mission assignment, and all the bureaucracy that is part of being a modern hunter.”

As Yang started to process this information, Oobleck went on to describe political and economic changes that occurred during the Age of Strife in detail, explaining how kings began by hiring hunters as elite mercenaries in their desperation. She’d literally never heard any of this before, but most of the rest of the class seemed to take it all in stride. She really wished her mom had tried to teach her more about basic history, because the destruction of an entire kingdom by some evil magic lady was a pretty big deal, even if it was a really long time ago.

After class Oobleck asked Yang to stay for a moment.

“You are unfamiliar with history in general, yes miss Branwen?” Oobleck took a sip from his thermos.

“That’s right.” Yang nodded.

“I’m afraid that I can’t tutor you to make up for such wide swathes of ignorance, but do remember that most forms of ignorance are nothing to be ashamed of.” 

“Don’t worry about it, I’m going to read ahead in the text and learn about anything I’m not familiar with on my own time.” Yang smirked. “I’m more studious than I look.”

“An admirable attitude, I look forward to seeing whether you succeed.”

###### Jaune

Jaune sighed as he stared into his lasagna. He wished that team RWBY hadn’t almost entirely stopped relying on the cafeteria for food. Previously, lunch had taken up a pretty good amount of time that he could spend chatting with Ruby, and/or admiring Weiss’ existence as a heavenly snow angel. They did spend enough time together outside of classes anyway, so it wasn’t all that bad. Mostly he was just jealous that they got to eat food that was actually good.

“Reeen, this food is so bad, why can’t you just make rencakes for every meal?” Nora rolled her eyes up to emphasise how gross the lasagna was.

“I _can_ cook things other than pancakes, you know.” Ren shook their head, smiling. “And you need to eat things that aren’t pancakes.”

“Hey, do you think these things are real?” A familiar voice who’s question was followed by an uncomfortable squeak drew Jaune’s attention away from his team. It was Cardin and his team, who Jaune had only heard of by virtue of the fact that Yang had kicked their asses for revenge over something yesterday.

“Ow!” A rabbit Faunus stood holding a cafeteria tray as Cardin yanked roughly on her ears. It looked like it hurt.

“Hey!” Jaune stood up and walked over to Cardin, doing his best to attract his attention. “Stop that, what’s wrong with you man?”

“What’s wrong with me?” Cardin let go of Faunus' ear and laughed. “The real question is what’s wrong with this animal? Why does it think it should eat in the same place as people?” That explained why Yang would publicly beat and threaten the man, yeah. 

“That’s not an appropriate attitude for a huntsman in training. You should be better than this.” Jaune scowled, gesturing to the Faunus, who was now quickly walking away from the entire thing. “If you don’t leave her alone I’ll report you to Professor Goodwitch.”

“Oh, really?” Cardin raised an eyebrow humorously. “And what if we decide that you’re much more interesting, Jane, was it?”

For a moment Jaune panicked, thinking that Cardin was about to start saying transphobic things. That would be too much for him to take. But no, he passed, Cardin didn’t know. “It’s Jaune.”

“Eh, close enough.” Cardin shrugged, thankfully not noticing Jaune’s initial distress. He looked around for a moment, then grabbed the tray of food the Faunus had left behind and threw it at Jaune, getting lasagna all over his clothes. “Whoops.” Cardin laughed, and walked away.

Well, it probably could have gone worse. Jaune sighed as he got a napkin and started wiping away the food as best he could. At least that girl got away. His team all looked at him funnily as he sat down. “What?” 

“Give me the word and I will break that guy’s legs.” Nora’s eyes were wide as she ground her fist into her open palm.

For once, Ren just nodded in agreement with Nora’s threat of violence.

“I’ll kick that guy’s ass like Yang did, I’m sure it would be enough to keep him away.” Pyrrha offered as she grabbed a napkin of her own and tried to help get some of the pasta sauce out of his jeans.

“Guys, come on. It was just some food. It’s no big deal.” Jaune let Pyrrha brush off what else of the lasagna could be removed as he started eating again.

“It’s that guy’s entire personality that’s the problem. I don’t think he’s going to leave you alone if you don’t stand up for yourself somehow.” Pyrrha pursed her lips.

“And you’re offering to help because he’s stronger than I am anyway.” Jaune rolled his eyes. “I get the idea, but there has to be a better way. If he gets scared away from me he’ll just move on to someone else, like that Faunus girl. And hey, maybe he’ll just ignore me since I didn’t really react to anything he did, who knows? Besides, I really don’t think using violence is going to accomplish anything, he’s training to be a huntsman too, he must be at least a little bit good. I bet I can talk sense into him if I have a chance.”

“To be fair, everyone here is stronger than you. I’m pretty sure you only got into Beacon because of Pyrrha.” Nora stopped as she realized that she was not encouraging Jaune. “I’m really glad that you’re here though because you really are a great leader and a friend and...”

Ren placed a hand on Nora’s shoulder and she faded into monochrome, her rapid gesturing and rambling slowing to a stop. “She means well. Just try not to take it to heart. But really, you don’t have to sacrifice yourself by letting him mess with you.”

“Isn’t self-sacrifice to protect others part of being a huntsman?” Jaune honestly didn’t mind doing this.

“It is.” Pyrrha sighed. “But at least promise us that if something happens you’ll tell us?”

“Of course I will, we’re a team.” Jaune smiled, and gave Pyrrha a one armed hug as he ate a bite of food with the other arm. “I know I’m not all that strong by myself, but together we can do anything, I’m sure of it.”

“Jaune.” Pyrrha smiled, rolled her eyes good-naturedly, and returned the hug. “You really are too nice for your own good sometimes.”

###### Weiss

After the day’s classes, Blake asked Weiss and Ruby to join her for a Faunus history tutoring session. Weiss considered not going. After the events of the morning, she wasn’t sure that it was best for her to be around Blake. She couldn’t deny that she felt a certain... physical attraction to Blake. Who wouldn’t? She was a beautiful, mysterious, and troubled vampire learning to help protect the human world from the Grimm. It was a situation straight out of one of the degenerate novels on Blake’s bookshelf.

But of course, engaging in some sort of relationship with another woman was simply impossible. The fact that said woman was a vampire made it doubly so. That she was gay in the first place was just another vulnerability, really. Another weakness, another failure that would be used against her if it ever were to slip free from beneath her firm, concealing grasp. Even here. 

Suddenly pulling out of Blake’s supplementary lessons could easily be considered an insult, or worse, an attempt to renege on her previous claims of restoring the Schnee name. It was never truly an option to not attend, even if the atmosphere was doubtless going to be tense. 

Nevertheless, Blake’s behavior was nothing less than professional as she had her students pull up chairs in front of her bunk bed. 

“Alright, I’m going to do this by filling in gaps in Doctor Oobleck’s history lessons, giving that he’s only mentioned the human side of the history he’s teaching.” Blake grimaced.

“Is that not a given, considering that the hunter’s profession is a human tradition?” Weiss was occasionally surprised by the sheer degree of advocacy Blake expressed. Though it made sense, being raised the way she must have been. 

“Yes and no. Chasse was a human village, but the people who left it and wandered the world spent time with and learned from the Faunus as well. When humans started forming kingdoms, a few Faunus emigrated to those kingdoms, but most of them remained in the nomadic tribes that were the only way to survive before the kingdoms and hunters. Over time, hunters learned to work together with Faunus tribes to keep aware of Grimm movements in the larger area, and some Faunus were trained to become hunters as well, usually for the sake of their tribe.”

“At the same time, the Faunus taught early hunters additional ways in which they could use their aura to fight. Techniques like aura channeling and aura shaping were learned from the Faunus, and have now become fairly commonplace.” Blake took a deep breath, and her aura flared in time with that breath. Then she drew her hand into her chest and thrust it forward with the palm facing out. Weiss saw a brief flare of aura dissipate from her hand in time with a forceful exhale. “I keep trying to get Yang to learn aura shaping, but she refuses to learn to control her breathing well enough.” She smiled, then shook her head. “Anyway, questions?”

Ruby shifted in her chair. “So, um, why was it that humans started to dislike Faunus?” 

“That started a few generations after the kingdom capitals were well established. Once people could spend their entire life inside of one city that was almost entirely human, they started seeing Faunus as being others, sometimes even considered them savages for staying in the wild.” Blake sighed, her voice growing increasingly irritated. “Sometimes tribes would start to camp outside cities for a few days to trade things. When they did, humans tended to be suspicious of them, and that suspicion attracted Grimm, creating a prejudice that the Faunus attracted Grimm. Which attracted Grimm. Human stupidity at its finest.”

“Why is it that the Faunus didn’t integrate into cities very much?” 

“In a word: overstimulation.” 

“Whoa, I thought that was just me.” Ruby stared at Blake with wonder. “That makes so much sense.”

“I don’t understand.” Weiss interjected. “What is overstimulation?”

“A lot of Faunus have a better sense of hearing, smell, or eyesight than humans do. Cities are bright, noisy, and full of people. Overstimulation is exactly what it sounds like it is. Too much sensory input can be incredibly exhausting or painful. Imagine being stuck in a club that plays loud music all day long, along with the constant sound of people all around you talking to each other. You’d probably get a headache after more than a couple of hours.”

“I think I can understand that.” Weiss nodded. 

“If you guys don’t have any other questions, that’s about all that I want to say for now. I had to review a fair bit of information myself to prepare for this, I really don’t know that much about history this old either.”

“If that is the case you do not need to do this, I am perfectly capable of learning on my own.” Weiss looked at Blake with concern. 

“Not at all, I have way too much free time, it’s nice to have something else to do, and I fully intend to make sure that you receive the kind of education that will lead to you using your position of privilege to help others. This is honestly a selfish act.” Blake shrugged humbly.

“Blake, c’mon, you’re doing it for everyone’s benefit, there’s nothing selfish about that.” Ruby put a hand on Blake’s shoulder reassuringly. “And I’m really glad to learn this, although it is a bit hard to hear sometimes. So thanks.”

“Yes, thank you Blake.” Weiss nodded approvingly at Blake in place of making physical contact. “I appreciate this a great deal.”

Blake quickly looked at her scroll, but Weiss could have sworn that she was hiding a smile. Weiss would have liked to see it. “It’s nothing, really.”

“I really must insist on offering my thanks until you accept them properly.” 

“Fine, you’re welcome.” Blake muttered.

“Good enough for now.” Weiss turned to Ruby. “Now Ruby, have you been keeping up with homework?”

“What?” Ruby looked around the room in a panic. “It’s only the first week, there’s barely any homework at all of courseI’mworkingonitresponsiblyandnotwaitinguntilthedayit’sduetodoit.” Despite Ruby’s words blending together at the end of the statement, Weiss could parse where it was going well enough.

“You are a very bad liar, and I suspected that you would be the type to procrastinate in subjects you don’t find to be particularly engaging.” Weiss sighed. “Know this, if you fail to keep up with all of your homework, I will be very cross with you Ruby Rose.” She glared threateningly. She simply couldn’t afford to let her teammates have poor grades, even when her own were no doubt going to be excellent.

“I’m doing my best, geez.” Ruby crossed her arms. “Look, I can’t do things early, okay? I have to wait until the stress of how soon they’re due outweighs how hard it is to do them.”

“That is a terrible system.” Weiss frowned.

“It’s what works, alright? Trust me, if anything else worked for me I would do it.” Ruby sighed. “I’m not having this conversation any more. I’ve heard this kind of thing from people a lot.”

Weiss watched as Ruby got up and put on her headphones, then proceeded to do something on her scroll. That was an odd attitude. Ruby really was strange, sometimes she seemed to be incredibly tired and withdrawn, yet most of the time she was upbeat and energetic.

Reluctantly, Weiss got up and went off to begin working some of her history homework, but not before glancing at Blake one last time. She really was beautiful. Weiss couldn’t help but take a short moment to watch as Blake ran a hand through her long black hair. Then Weiss turned away.

###### Ruby

Wednesday was a chaotic mess. In combat training Ruby and Weiss were only barely able to beat two other students who probably deserved to win anyway, their teamwork was far better. Ruby ended up tripping over Weiss multiple times in their fight, and in the end they only won because Weiss made a fog from water dust and used it to electrocute three of the four combatants, letting Ruby finish their opponents with heavy scythe blows, powered by the recoil of her bullets.

In dust studies Ruby accidentally activated some of the fire dust she was working with and blew herself up, starting a chemical fire. It was quickly put out and she was reassured that it was a common beginner’s mistake, but that didn’t make it any less embarrassing. Survival was easy at least, she had been exploring the woods all her life.

Even after the day’s classes were over there was more to be done though. A few lightweight homework assignments were due through the school’s online portal at midnight, so instead of working on them in the time before dinner, Ruby procrastinated by hanging out with Coco, telling herself she was definitely going to get up the nerve to really talk to her about stuff.

They ended up meeting in an outdoor training field, mostly because Ruby mentioned wanting to talk about leadership and teamwork things. Coco liked to be a hands-on teacher.

“Sooooo, do you know a good place to get weed?” Ruby was careful to only have about four of her special cookies a month, and of course now she would only be able to have them on weekends, but it would be a good idea to get a source for the future.

“That’s what you wanted to learn about teamwork? Teams who get high together stay together?” Coco laughed.

“No, it’s just for me.” Ruby rolled her eyes. “And it’s just a tangent.”

“Trying to work up the nerve to mention whatever’s actually been bothering you the last few days, huh?” Coco sat on a wooden bench and rested her handbag next to her to pat the seat. It made the wood creak and bend with its weight.

“You could tell?” Ruby slumped into the offered seat. 

“Of course I could. You were acting like a wounded puppy whenever you noticed that I was looking in your direction.” Coco rolled her eyes. 

“Well then why didn’t you ask what was up?” Ruby scowled. Coco could have saved her all of this stress in the first place if she’d wanted to.

“Because if you want help I expect you to have the guts to ask for it yourself.” Coco shrugged carelessly. “You gotta learn sometime.”

“Do you have any idea how many fucking people have told me to just deal with my problems and do something even though I find it incredibly difficult to do up until this point? While saying that it would help me get better at doing it? It doesn’t help. It doesn’t fucking help!” As soon as she realized she was shouting, Ruby drew back, looking down at her own lap. “Sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry. Clearly I’ve struck a nerve.” Coco took off her sunglasses. “So I’ll bite, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t really understand what it means to be the team leader.” Ruby hung her head.

“Well, that's actually pretty simple. It means that you make the tactical and strategic decisions. And that you get to deal with the paperwork.” Coco chuckled.

“Yeah, I know that. I mean like...” Ruby gestured incoherently at the air, “how do I interact with my teammates when I’m in a position of responsibility over them? Should I be acting more confident than I really am? Do I need to be hiding things that might make them doubt me?” 

“So that’s how it is.” Coco nodded sagely. “Well, you’ve seen me interacting with Velvs, Fox, and Yatsu a bit. How do we treat each other?”

Ruby thought about the way that Coco had a tendency to slap Fox’s ass when he said something funny. Or how naturally she stepped to Velvet’s defence when someone harassed her. Or how Yatsuhashi subtly relied on her to know how much strength he should use. “Like family.”

“Close enough.” Coco chuckled. “You can let them in, they’re closer to being your equals than they are to being under your command. This isn’t Atlas. As long as the four of you can trust each other you’re doing everything outside of combat situations correctly.” 

“Really?” Ruby tilted her head.

“That’s my take on the situation anyway, everyone seems to do things a bit differently, but I’m trying to make the point that you don’t need to act like anything you’re not around them. They seem like a pretty good bunch, even Weiss. Besides, pretending to be more confident than you are can only go horribly wrong, that much I know.” Coco sighed. 

“Thanks. I think I get it a bit more now.” Ruby nodded slowly.

“Good, now I’d like a little favor in return.”

“Huh?”

“Have any of your teammates been acting strangely lately?” 

“I’d say that they’re all pretty strange people. So, no, not that I know of.”

“How about developing any strange abilities?”

“Strange abilities?”

“Suddenly being a better fighter, some sort of suspicious trick that isn’t their semblance, or maybe their semblance becoming suddenly more powerful?”

“No, definitely nothing like that. Why are you asking?” This was a really weird thing to ask.

“Ozpin thinks that something unusual might be going on with someone on your team. Uptight old man won’t tell me who, but I can tell you that it’s in the best interest of whoever it is to let me know if something weird does happen.” 

“So he only made you our mentors to spy on us?”

“Don’t take it to heart. He’s basically incapable of doing anything without an ulterior motive, but he does want to help people. He helped me out a bunch a while ago. I think the assignment would have been the same anyway though, all four of you are pretty damn good in your own ways, and I’m the leader of one of the best teams in my class. It’s a natural combination, let the best learn from the best.” Coco put her sunglasses back on and got up from the bench, somehow lifting her bag without effort. “Anyway, I’ll see you around.”

“Alright, see you.” Ruby waved goodbye, then checked her scroll. She still had some time before she needed to get to helping Yang with dinner. She needed it to think about what she’d discussed. It was mostly good. She really did want to be able to open up to everyone. They seemed like great people. Yang in particular was very kind and even protective of everyone, Ruby hadn’t missed the way she had protected Weiss from Cardin the other day, despite not really liking her. She was strong too, mmmm... muscles.

A sound from her scroll alerted Ruby that she was late to helping Yang cook dinner. She quickly shot an apologetic message and started to rush across the ground with her semblance, smiling.


	11. Weiss Cuckoo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> massive content warning for the next few chapters: there will be a threat of identity death. For obvious reasons, it will not occur, but the danger will be present.

###### Yang

On Friday night, team RWBY went on a team bonding exercise, at Ruby’s vigorous insistence. Karaoke, of all things. Something Yang had never even heard of before, but she thought sounded like fun. Even when Weiss immediately attempted to stonewall the idea, Ruby swayed her with the assurance that she wouldn’t have to sing if she didn’t want to, and with some very convincing and very cute puppy dog eyes. 

The locale Ruby chose was actually rather low-key. They were guided into a simple room with some padded seats, a projector, sound system, and large coffee table, then given electronic menus that they could order dinner off of. 

“I call the first song, mostly because I’m paying for this!” Ruby jumped up to the karaoke machine and started typing something into the search bar. Paying for everything was how she’d convinced Blake, she must really be well paid for her work in the forge.

“Good luck. I’m getting food, I’m starving.” Yang picked up a menu and started looking at the appetizers. She hadn’t had decent food cooked by someone other than herself in a long time.

“If anyone needs them, I brought earplugs.” Weiss held up a small plastic bag. “ _Plenty_ of earplugs.”

“Awww, that’s really sweet of you. Thanks Weiss.” Ruby looked up from making her selection and beamed at Weiss. “I should be fine though, music is something that I never have trouble with.”

“Calling Blake’s singing music would be an exaggeration, I think.” Yang wagged her eyebrows at Blake teasingly. “It’s more like the sound a cat makes when it’s dying.”

“Which is why I intend to rap. Besides, you’re one to talk.” Blake turned and mock whispered to Weiss and Ruby. “Yang may be a kind of songbird, but that hasn’t done anything to improve her singing.”

“You just have no appreciation for the deep gravely tones of good black metal.”

“This is looking like an increasingly terrible idea. Though that is why I brought earplugs.” Weiss shook her head.

“Nah, we’re mostly just messing with each other.” Yang shot Weiss a thumbs-up. “We’re not actually that bad at singing.”

“It is not your skill that I take issue with, but your choices of genre.” Weiss scoffed. “Tasteless.”

“And I guess you only listen to classical music and opera?” 

“Is there something _wrong_ with enjoying classical music?”

“No, not at all. If you like being boring.” Yang taunted. “Why are you here in the first place if you don’t want to hear from the genres of music we like?”

“I never said that, besides, I must admit to having a certain... morbid fascination with the idea of being forced to listen to all of you sing.” Weiss was about to say something else, but then the opening of whatever song Ruby had finally picked started playing.

It only took Yang a few seconds to recognize the song as Ocean Planet by Gojira. She started nodding in approval and along with the music at the same time, clearly Ruby had good taste. 

Ruby completely threw herself into singing. She held the microphone right up to her mouth and sang with far more confidence and clarity than was reasonable or expected. She had her eyes closed frequently, but she never messed up the words as her entire body threw itself about wildly in a way that matched the feel of the song. Yang was mesmerized. She barely even noticed the singing itself, instead she just watched as Ruby bodily expressed everything she had ever felt from the song herself.

When the song ended Yang started to applaud with gusto, but Ruby flinched in response and she stopped. Weiss and Blake looked at her like she was crazy.

“I liked it.” Yang shrugged.

“You do love From Mars to Sirius.” Blake shook her head in disappointment. “For some reason.”

“It’s not even that, I think Ruby killed it. In a good way.” Yang clarified.

“Thanks.” Ruby smiled as she sat down.

“Alright, I’m going next.” Blake stood up. “I know exactly what I’m doing.” 

“Oh, were in for a treat.” Yang whispered to Ruby. “If she’s doing what I think she’s doing she’s going to kick ass.”

“Crank the music up.” Blake turned up the volume to the maximum setting. “Bring that shit in. Yeah, the movement's in motion with massive militant poetry. Now check this out.” She smirked as she launched into the first verse.

_“In the right light, study becomes insight  
But the system that dissed us, teaches us to read and write  
So-called facts are fraud  
They want us to allege and pledge and bow down to their god  
Lost the culture, the culture lost  
Spun our minds and through time, ignorance has taken over  
Yo, we gotta take the power back  
Bam, here's the plan  
Motherfuck Uncle Schnee, step back, I know who I am  
Raise up your ear, I'll drop the style and clear  
It's the beats and the lyrics they fear  
The rage is relentless  
We need a movement with a quickness  
You are the witness of change and to counteract  
We gotta take the power back”_

Blake didn’t stand still as she nailed every single syllable with perfect enunciation, stalking from side to side and bobbing around like a natural badass.

_“The present curriculum, I put my fist in 'em  
Atlascentric, every last one of 'em  
See right through the red, white, and blue disguise  
With lecture I puncture the structure of lies  
Installed in our minds and attempting to hold us back  
We've got to take it back  
Holes in our spirit causing tears and fears  
One-sided stories for years and years and years  
I'm inferior? Who's inferior?  
Yeah, we need to check the interior  
Of the system that cares about only one culture  
And that, is why we gotta take the power back”_

_“The teacher stands in front of the class  
But the lesson plan he can't recall  
The student's eyes don't perceive the lies  
Bouncing off every fucking wall  
His composure is well kept  
I guess he fears playing the fool  
The complacent students sit  
And listen to that bullshit that he'd learned in school  
Atlas ain't my rope to swing on  
Can't learn a thing from it, yet we hang from it  
Gotta get it, gotta get it together then  
Like the motherfuckin' Weathermen  
Expose and close the doors on those who try  
To strangle and mangle the truth  
'Cause the circle of hatred continues unless we react  
We gotta take the power back”_

“Good shit.” Yang gave Blake a high five on her way back to sitting down.

“That was... concerningly anarchistic.” Weiss eyed Blake with suspicion.

“I consider that to be a compliment of the highest order.” Blake smirked.

“It is not.” Weiss shook her head.

“So, Yang,” Ruby gestured at her nervously, “Blake said that you were a songbird. What kind? If it’s okay to ask.” 

Yang sighed. A brief glance confirmed that Blake was indeed barely containing laughter, as she usually did when this subject came up. “Fine, you can tell them.”

“She’s a great tit, and she has great tits!” Blake slapped Yang on the side of her boobs, laughing uncontrollably as Yang just shook her head in amusement.

“I regret telling you that every time I think about it. Should have just said I was some sort of eagle or something.” Yang rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t stop smiling. It definitely wasn’t like she enjoyed the joke or something. “And just to be clear, Blake’s the only one who’s allowed to tease me about it.”

“As I would expect.” Weiss was making an obvious effort not to laugh.

“Yeah, whatever. I’m taking my turn.” Yang got up and put on the next song. She settled on Children of the Grave, by Black Sabbath.

The four of them spent the rest of the evening joking around, eating a surprisingly decent dinner, and then retiring peacefully in time to catch the last airship back to Beacon. Yang enjoyed herself, and she really enjoyed watching Ruby as she sang more excellent prog with gusto. Blake spent the rest of her time doing Rage Against the Machine further justice. Weiss never sang, but she was surprisingly supportive of those who did. Nobody ended up using any earplugs.

###### Jacques

Jacques Schnee stared at the photograph that had been sent to him by his informant within Beacon. It was disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. Weiss had always been a rebellious brat. As best she tried to disguise her intent, it was obvious that her desire to go to Beacon stemmed from her low opinion of him. He’d been generous, given her an opportunity to do so, given that the argument she used to argue her position was not entirely incoherent. 

This, however... this was simply too far. Clearly allowing even the slightest possibility of a loosening of her leash had been a mistake. Those fools in the research department had assured him that the Gigas would win the fight, and yet look at the situation that now faced him because of their failure.

The photograph in question was nothing more that of the ceremony at which Ozpin had announced teams. The trouble lay in its contents. Not only was Weiss in the same team as two Faunus, but a red circle around a particularly weak looking one indicated it as the team leader and as Weiss’ partner. Such a degenerate influence was a significant risk. As such only one course of action remained. He had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, he would have preferred to succeed by his own merit. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

“Klein. Bring me two cuckoo’s eggs, the letter for Weiss that I dictated to you, corn husks, a durable rubber band, and one of the more recent photographs of Weiss from the family album. Make sure that the photograph is a solitary portrait.” Jacques turned the intercom back off without listening to the response. Klein was reliable enough that he would accomplish it without objection.

It was an order very similar to the one that he had given shortly after Winter had run away to Atlas Academy’s cold embrace. It had failed then, and if it failed a second time he would ensure that Roman Torchwick would never peddle false curses again.

The ingredients were delivered with satisfactory speed, and once they were Jacques locked the door to his office. Then he cleared his desk and laid them out across its surface. Carefully, he laid out the corn husks, then wrapped the photograph in a husk and bound it with the rubber band, chanting the words he had been told to use as he did. They were in some foreign language that he had never bothered to look up.

Next the letter was wrapped in its own husk and added to the confines of the rubber band. Then each of the two eggs, individually. It was done. Only one step remained.

He got up from his chair and tossed the bundle on the fire, the smell of burning rubber filling the air. “You brought this upon yourself.” Soon enough, his second prodigal daughter would be returned to the nest.

###### Weiss

The next morning Weiss went on a jog. She had been far too restricted and divided in her time at the Schnee manor to properly train her endurance and stamina, two things she had no doubt she would need to prepare before going on a field mission. As she had suspected, it only took a few laps around the school for her to need a break.

As Weiss sat on a bench near the fountain at the entrance to the great hall, she saw a bird perched near the head of the fountain, it almost seemed to be looking directly at her. It was gray, with a white underbelly and black flecks around it’s head. While she caught her breath, it started to gradually hop closer, climbing down the tiers of the fountain like a staircase.

Finally, just as Weiss was about to get up, the bird suddenly flew right at her in a burst of speed. Startled, she brought up her arms to defend her face, but the bird seemed to simply fly through them. She flinched as it reached her face, but felt nothing, and when she opened her eyes, it was gone.

That was strange. Weiss looked around her, but she couldn’t see the bird. She shrugged, dismissing the incident as she stood back up, only to fall back to the bench, clasping her head as it was suddenly wracked with pain. It felt like her head was splitting open. She must have screamed, because someone had rushed over to her and seemed to be asking her if she was okay. However, until she lost consciousness all she could feel or hear was an incessant pounding and bursting pain in her skull.

###### 

Weiss woke up in what was obviously the infirmary, based on the white sheets. At her side was Professor Goodwitch.

“You don’t look like a nurse.” Weiss squinted suspiciously at her bedside companion. “What happened?”

“Unfortunately, I’m afraid that that is something I’m going to need you to tell me. Medically speaking, there is nothing wrong with you.” Glynda adjusted her glasses. “However, given that you have no reported history of severe migraines, as well as certain more obscure indicators, I am inclined to suspect that something of an unusual nature has happened.”

“Something of an unusual nature? And a nature that isn’t medical?” Weiss’ thoughts immediately turned to Blake. “You couldn’t mean...”

“Your loss of consciousness coincided with a certain kind of event that indicates something abnormal may have occurred, an aberration, perhaps. If you would tell me what happened before you lost consciousness, I may be able to determine the cause.” 

“Aberration? What sort of an aberration?”

“I’m afraid that in the event that this timing was simply a coincidence, I cannot tell you anything more, for your own safety.” 

This sounded increasingly like Glynda was implying something of a supernatural nature. Weiss looked at her questioningly, but acquiesced. “There was a bird. It seemed interested in me, and it suddenly flew towards me. I thought that it was going to crash into my face, and then it disappeared. Shortly after the pain began.”

Glynda stood up and began pacing the room, concentrating on something. After a few minutes, she became suddenly stiff, then spoke carefully. “I would like you to visualize the inside of your head, as if it were a physical space. Then tell me what you see.”

“Very well.” Weiss closed her eyes and concentrated. She visualized the inside of her head. A small space, cramped, yet normally soft. For some reason, the image of two small birds immediately came upon her. “I see two birds. It feels like one of them isn’t mine.” She gasped. “The birds agree.” She opened her eyes. “What was that?”

“Are you familiar with the legend of the Earthen Cuckoo?”

“No. What does a legend have to do with this?” This sounded bad, but at least Glynda seemed to recognise what was happening, or have a guess.

“Sometimes legends are true, or perhaps we make them true.”

“Be clear.”

“Someone has laid a curse upon you.”

“I see. And how can it be broken?”

“That’s it?” Glynda studied Weiss carefully. “No disbelief in the supernatural?”

“It is a possibility that I already have a degree of experience with such matters.” Weiss carefully avoided implying that that experience was recent. There was no way that she was outing Blake.

“Perhaps assigning Coco to be Ruby’s mentor was a wise decision after all.” Glynda ruminated. “Nevertheless, I’m afraid that this particular curse is not so straightforwardly dealt with.”

“Then tell me what it is.”

“According to legend, the Earthen Cuckoo will lay its egg in the mind of a victim, replacing them with someone else, much like the way that a cuckoo lays its eggs in another bird's nest, and the hatchlings then push rival eggs out of the nest.”

“What are you saying?” Weiss’ voice trembled. “What’s going to happen?”

“Someone who is affected by the curse is gradually overcome by a new personality that matches the desire of the one who placed the curse. Once cast, it cannot be lifted, only fought. I’m sorry.” Glynda sat again, looking deeply drained.

“That can’t be it. That can’t just be it! I won’t allow that to happen, I refuse!” If she was standing Weiss would have stomped her foot. The next moment however, cold determination creeped over her. There was only one person who would have the motivation to do something like this. “I will not allow him to win.” She muttered, more for herself than Glynda. “How do I survive it?”

“You fight. The curse is attempting to supplant your very identity with something else. To survive it, you must have the stronger force of will. It is time to start asking yourself the important questions. Who am I? What do I want? You have a few weeks, maybe a month before it takes control.” 

Weiss looked at her hands, holding them in front of her face. She felt like she’d been here before. In a room, alone, losing herself. Probably because she had. “Thank you for the advice. I would like to be alone for a while.”

“Of course.” Glynda got up. “Though one last thing before I go, Coco is aware of the supernatural, if you need someone your age to speak with you can tell her. Anyone who is not already aware should not be informed, or you will risk endangering them. I will explain more when you wish.” She left, the clicking of her heels receding into the distance.

No matter what she did, how successful she was, it was never enough to satisfy him. It wasn’t success he demanded, although there was always punishment for not meeting high standards, no, it was submission. Coming here may have been a mistake, clearly he had become concerned that she was finally somewhat free of his grasp, so he decided to instead take a firm grip on her neck. Again, again, again, again. Every time. Nothing that made her happy had ever been without consequence.

Who was she? As if she hadn’t been asking that question for the entirety of her adult life. As if the answer hadn’t been beat out of her more times than she could count. As if she never woke up in the middle of the night nearly screaming, but just cowardly enough to not dare make a noise lest someone see her weakness.

And as for what she wanted, that much was obvious, at least. Her desire to restore the Schnee name was genuine, as was her desire to overthrow her father. Of that much she was certain. And perhaps, if it was possible, she wanted a chance to feel safe being herself, which was what Beacon should have been. Instead, she may never be herself again. Fuck.

Tears pricked at her eyes. It was too much. She needed help. Who could possibly be able to know what was happening. Unless... What if Winter had faced the same thing when she joined Atlas Academy?

With trembling hands, Weiss fumbled out her scroll and called Winter, not even concerned about whether she may be interrupting something. The scroll rang. It rang again. Just when she thought that it would go to voicemail, Winter’s concerned face appeared before her.

“Weiss?” Winter quickly took in Weiss’ distraught condition. “What’s happened? Are you okay?”

“No.” Weiss shook her head. “I’m not okay.” Her voice broke. “I...” She realized that she was breathing too much, reflexively taking fast, deep breaths that left her lightheaded.

“Breathe Weiss, it’s okay, just breathe.” Winter took slow breaths, and Weiss started to mimic them. “There. You can tell me anything. You know that.” 

“Shortly after you went to Atlas Academy, did something strange happen? Something involving a cuckoo?” Winter’s look of mixed shock and horror was all the response Weiss needed. “Father did it to you too, didn’t he?” Her voice was a whisper.

“Yes, he did.” 

“But you made it, right? You’re still you?” Weiss desperately grasped at straws.

“I am.” Winter nodded. “Had I failed to overcome it I doubt that I would be in the military.” 

“Okay.” Weiss nodded. “It is possible.” She focused on that.

“It is. I have confidence in you Weiss, I believe that you are stronger than him.” Winter nodded. “Would you like for me to visit you sometime soon? It may help you to discuss this further in person.” 

“Can you? I would appreciate it.” 

“I can make the time.” Winter’s expression sharpened with determination. “I swear to you that I will do everything in my power to help you through this, but ultimately your fate is up to you.”

“Thank you.” Weiss slumped into bed. She had time, and support. She could do this. “I think I had best resume my day as normal now. My teammates shouldn’t be told of this.”

“Agreed. I will see you soon, sister.” Winter ended the call.

This was... better. Weiss felt that her initial shock had faded. Still, now that she was aware of it, she couldn’t seem to ignore the presence in her head. It was distinctly uncomfortable, and with her knowledge of its purpose, it left her feeling violated. All because of her father. Not only this, he had done the same thing to Winter. Her fists clenched, the nails digging into her palms. He would pay.

Mechanically, Weiss got out of the hospital bed and prepared to leave. There would be time to fill the gaps in her knowledge later, right now she needed to destroy something, and there would probably be plenty of people willing to accept an offer for a sparring match from her. Destroying their hopes and dreams with a vicious trouncing on the battlefield would have to do. She intended to use plenty of fire dust.

###### Ruby

It was on Monday that Ruby realized she had already begun to fuck everything up. Over the course of the day's classes, she sat in wide-eyed terror as professors began by collecting essays they had assigned on the first days of their class, and that she had completely and utterly forgotten about. It happened in two different classes, and each time she could feel Weiss glaring at her, despite her desperate attempts to disappear into her seat.

In the short time between classes Ruby had set aside for doing some of her lesser homework, she logged into the school portal and discovered that there had been an online quiz she had missed on Thursday. It had probably been mentioned by the professor once on the first day of class, but it hadn’t been on the schedule Wednesday evening when she’d done some online homework. In other words, she had had no way of knowing that it was happening, aside from getting lucky and checking the portal for no reason.

It was bad. She was already falling apart academically, and it was only the start of the second week. She ended up spending the entire day so stressed and afraid of Weiss’ judgement that she couldn’t concentrate on her classes at all. By the time that the last class of the day was over Ruby was ready to run away to the roof or somewhere she could fly away from if Weiss found her.

Instead, the moment that the Professor dismissed the class, Weiss grabbed hold of Ruby’s collar, jerking her to a stop even though she had already started to shed rose petals.

“And _where_ do you think you are going?” Weiss’ glare was severe.

“Bathroom?” Ruby lied hopefully.

“Wrong answer. You are coming with me to the dorm.” Weiss started dragging Ruby along behind her.

“Blake, Yang, help?” Ruby pleaded with them not to abandon her as she let herself be dragged away. They shared a quick look before following Weiss. “I’ll come with you peacefully if you let me go.”

“Very well.” Weiss let go of Ruby and they started walking alongside each other in tense silence.

A few times Ruby thought about saying something, but she always ended up cringing away when she tried. She hated that she’d forgotten things this major so much. It always happened though, it was inevitable. But nobody ever seemed to understand that. Even her parents.

The first thing Ruby did when she got back to the dorm was dash into bed and wrap herself in her blanket until only her head was sticking out. She leaned over the edge of the bed so that everyone below could see her.

“Ruby Rose. You have failed to complete two essays, both due today. How?” Weiss stared up at Ruby with her arms crossed. At least she was calm. That was sort of worse than if she was angry though. It meant she might get angry if she didn’t like Ruby’s answer.

“Well, I think that they got assigned on the first day of classes, right?”

“That is right. I fail to see the relevance.”

“The thing is that Professor Greene and Professor Peach assigned those by just telling us to do them as we were leaving. And then that was the only way that they ever told us about it. Obviously, I didn’t start either of them right away because it wasn’t due for an entire week, but by the time that I would have started them I forgot that they existed because it wasn’t like they were listed on a schedule or something, so I never thought about them after the moment that they were assigned and there were no reminders. So of course I would forget that they exist.”

“Do you really believe that that is an acceptable excuse.” Weiss’ expression only hardened as she began to tap her foot impatiently. “If you know that this is a problem for you, then why don’t you just keep your own schedule.”

“I tried that a few times back in high school. It doesn’t work.” Ruby started counting off the ways it always went wrong on her fingers. “Either I forget to write something down as soon as it’s mentioned and therefore think that I have nothing, forget to check the schedule, lose the schedule, or I just can’t be bothered to write anything in it. Remembering has worked better up until now because before assignments were all either tiny things I could do at school, or big things that got talked about endlessly in class. Medium things just slip away.”

“That is the laziest, most pathetic excuse I have ever heard.”

“Don’t call me lazy!” Ruby burst out, suddenly angry. “I’m not lazy! Everything is hard!”

“Are you attempting to imply that something as minor as simple organization and scheduling is comparable in difficulty to doing some form of serious assignment?”

“Yeah! That’s it.” Ruby smiled at Weiss. She got it.

“That is nonsense!” Weiss glared back. “Enough excuses, I expect you to do better in your position as team leader.”

“I... what?” Ruby desperately scrambled for words to explain herself. “No, Weiss, you... I can’t...”

“Can’t? Or won’t?” 

“No! I just-just give me a second. I need to think.” Ruby withdrew her head into her blankets wrapping her arms and wings around herself as she took comfort in the small, enclosed, and dark space. Maybe she should just tell them. It wasn’t like it could make things harder than they already were. She indistinctly heard what she was suspected was Blake and Yang talking Weiss down a little bit. 

Why’d it have to be like this? Ruby wanted this to happen because she wanted it too, not because Weiss was hounding her about her forgetfulness. Slowly, she peek out of the blanket to look at the room and her teammates. Blake and Yang were waiting patiently while Weiss paced. It was probably for the best though. Otherwise she’d probably just end up in this situation again.

Ruby popped the rest of the way out and cleared her throat, drawing everyone’s attention. “A lot of things can be really hard for me to do. You probably don’t get why because it’s not hard for you, or for most people, but I’m just not like that. Because I have ADHD, and I’m autistic.”

Weiss was blatantly taken aback. “How-”

“Weiss, whatever you’re about to say, I think you should take a good long moment to consider whether it’s ignorant or not.” Yang interjected before Weiss could finish her question.

For a long moment Weiss stared at Yang in surprise. Then she shook her head, suddenly disgusted. “You may be right.”

“So,” Blake was picking her words carefully all of a sudden, “I don’t think that I have an accurate idea of what that entails, or what it means in a practical sense. Would you like to tell us about it yourself?”

“Um, yeah.” Ruby shifted, suddenly feeling very awkward. She could already feel that they were looking down at her, weren’t they? “I sort of only told you right now because Weiss was all on my case, but yeah. It’s just sort of hard to say it in any sort of order or all at once, so it’ll probably be a gradual thing.”

An uncomfortable silence filled the room.

“Anyway, I guess since we were talking about homework...” Ruby took a deep breath and used it as a moment to think about what to say. “Keeping track of homework is hard for me because I can’t stick to or use systems of organization effectively, or remember things all the time. I need a schedule that just has everything put on it in advance for me, and that isn’t a thing here.”

“In that case, I would be willing to assist you with that matter by preparing such a schedule for you.” Weiss still sounded disappointed. “Honestly though, if you had simply said so from the beginning and asked for help this entire issue could have been avoided.”

“It could have?” Ruby was confused. Was Weiss offering to help?

“Yes. I already prepare such a schedule for myself. We share a fair number of classes, I would simply need to delete a few items to make it nearly complete for your purposes.” Weiss rolled her eyes. “It is a very simple matter from my own point of view.”

“Thanks!” Ruby jumped out of her bed, still partially wrapped in her blanket. She stopped herself just short of pouncing on Weiss. “Can I give you a hug?”

“Very well.” Weiss sighed as she opened her arms and Ruby wrapped her up in her arms and blanket alike.

“Thank you Weiss.” Ruby couldn’t help giggling europhically. Weiss was cool and soft in her arms.

“It is nothing, really.” After a moment, Weiss began to cling to Ruby as well.

“I’ll keep track of Into to Dust assignments for us too.” Blake volunteered from the sidelines.

“I’m the only one in Advanced Weapon Crafting, but that I can handle, because I really enjoy it, and I tend to fixate on those assignments and finish them right away.” Ruby yawned and leaned against Weiss a little more. “Mmmm. I’m really emotionally drained. Someone pick me up and toss me back into bed?”

“Alright,” Yang stepped forward, “Weiss, if you want to disentangle yourself?” Weiss was quickly replaced by Yang, who lifted Ruby up and tossed her into her bunk with ease.

“Thank.” Ruby pulled out and settled into bed with her scroll and headset. That was hard, but now she could tell her teammates about how she functioned, so it was definitely worth it. “Talk more later.”


	12. Mood

###### Ruby

By the time Yang and Blake had prepared that night’s dinner, Ruby was past most of her initial nervousness. There was, of course, that same neverending fear of rejection, but her team had already expressed their support for her, so she could bear it the same way she usually did. Which is to say, ignoring it.

“Yang, you’re an awesome cook.” Ruby barely managed to wait long enough to praise Yang before shoveling an entire piece of chicken breast into her mouth, followed quickly by couscous and naan bread.

“Stop eating like some-” Weiss’ voice was almost venomous before she cut herself off, scowling. Ruby tried to avoid reacting, but she suddenly enjoyed the food a little bit less.

After an awkward pause, which Weiss spent most of picking morosely at her food, Yang mercifully broke the silence with a bright smile. “Thanks Ruby. I really enjoy cooking for others.”

“Would...” Ruby still had to try to make herself say the words, “you guys mind if I told you more about autism?” 

“Not at all. I’d like to hear whatever you’re comfortable sharing.” Blake smiled graciously through her mouthful of couscous.

“Indeed. My preconceptions of such matters are clearly inaccurate.” Weiss carefully avoided saying what those preconceptions were, but Ruby could begin to guess. She didn’t want to be able to guess.

“Do any of you know what stimming is?” Ruby was answered by two shrugs and a shake of the head. “So, basically, I sort of always have to be thinking about or experiencing something, and that usually means background noise for doing things that don’t need me to listen to something to be able to do them, so whenever I’m reading or doing written assignments I’ll be listening to music. I actually can’t listen to music and only listen to music anymore because it’s such a strong habit, except when I’m high. Which is why I like to listen to a bunch of my favourite music when I am.”

“So those particular habits are heavily influenced by your condition?” Weiss was obviously trying to avoid being judgemental, and Ruby appreciated it.

“Yeah. Like, when I can tell that I’m starting to have a rejection sensitive dysphoria episode I can have a cookie and that’ll let me calm down. Or just when I’m really stressed out and generally not dealing with emotional dysregulation well, or seriously just can’t concentrate on anything.” 

“What’s rejection sensitive dysphoria?” Yang was paying rapt attention, such that her food seemed to be getting cold.

“Basically, it’s when you overanalyze the last thing someone said to you and have a panic attack because you think they hate you now even though you know better.” Ruby shrugged. “It doesn’t happen to me very often, but it’s sort of nasty. I once ended up taking a stress nap at eight in the evening because of it, and then I couldn’t sleep until like five in the morning when I had a test the next day.”

“Wow...” Yang stared at Ruby, her eyes as soft and sympathetic as she had ever seen them, “that sounds really hard to deal with.”

“It is.” Ruby nodded enthusiastically. “It’s really hard to deal with sometimes. And the rest of it is just the way that I am.” Yang seemed to get it, as much as she plausibly could in her position.

“Just the way that you are?” Blake looked up from her food.

“Same as my arm, really.” Ruby tried to find the right words. “It’s a part of me like the rest. Sometimes the way that society is makes it harder for me to do things than it is for other people, but I like myself.” She smiled at the room.

“Is that... possible?” Weiss looked like she was about to drop her fork. 

“Mood.” Blake nodded placidly, though she didn’t look up from her plate.

“Well, I like you both, whatever you say.” Ruby pouted at them. Blake responded with a wan smile, and Weiss only seemed to concentrate that much harder on her plate.

“And think I like the way that you are, Ruby.” Yang grinned and started dipping her bread in the sauce the chicken was cooked in.

This time it was Ruby’s turn to focus on her food in response to someone else’s support. Patch wasn’t a very big town, and she had only ever been able to find one or another kind of support group among her peers. There were a tiny handful of other neurodivergent people spattered across grade levels at Signal, and there were a handful of other trans people spattered across grade levels. She was the only person she knew who was both. It had made it hard to talk about everything with any group in particular.

So far, however, this really was going pretty well. Yang in particular seemed to mostly get it already, and Weiss and Blake were obviously trying. Ruby was really starting to appreciate the way that Yang had already casually made it clear that she wasn’t straight from the beginning, it was one more little thing that made her more comfortable. Maybe it would be nice to come out to her team with the rest of who she was soon.

The rest of the dinner was spent in relative silence, with the occasional praise for Yang’s cooking. When Ruby and Weiss started to clean up after, Ruby immediately put on her headphones as she went about cleaning up. For the first time ever, Weiss didn’t attempt to make her take them off for the sake of communication in the process of doing dishes.

###### Glynda

It wasn’t until Tuesday morning that Weiss came to Glynda’s office in search of more information of what she was being dragged into. Glynda hated giving these talks, they almost never signaled the beginning of something good. And Weiss’ case was perhaps one of the most painful she had ever seen, whoever had placed that curse was most certainly going on her shit list. It was perhaps the most difficult part of being a teacher, that excruciating time when all she could do was educate as best she could, and hope that her students would be able to succeed.

“So, what exactly is this world of the supernatural that I have stumbled into?” Weiss was shockingly composed for someone in her position as she took a seat across from Glynda’s desk.

“It is the world of the supernatural.” Glynda gestured to her surroundings. “Curses, spirits, gods, demons, monsters, if a myth exists, it most likely contains a grain of truth.” 

“Yesterday you implied that it is myth which creates supernatural beings.” Weiss wasn’t letting anything slip by, troublesome.

“That is Ozpin’s pet theory, yes. Personally, I do not hold such hypotheses without evidence.” Such presumptions were dangerous things, and while Glynda did suspect that the world of the supernatural was heavily affected by perception, to allow such information to be believed was dangerous, in the event that it was true.

“Either way, I suppose that this means that Salem is likely more than a fairy tale from a lost age, despite the occasional historical skepticism.” Another fact that Glynda would have preferred for Weiss to miss.

“Yes, she most likely exists in some fashion, or at the very least, existed.” Salem was in fact known to be capable of communicating with her followers in the physical plane, but she fortunately had no ability to interact directly with the material world.

“And why is it then, that you suggest I do not share this information with my teammates?” 

“Very few humans or Faunus will ever enter into an encounter with the realm of the supernatural. If what many consider to be reality were a great play, the supernatural is like what’s happening behind the curtain. You only need to see what’s happening on the stage to live your life, even as a huntsman. Knowing that there is a backstage, or worse, actively looking for aberrations, can easily attract a great deal of trouble, and present a danger to everyone involved.” 

“You keep using that term, aberration, what does it mean?”

“Aberration is a general term for a creature of myth. Though many can be considered sentient, they are not like us. Every aberration is and must be true to its nature, and its instincts, or they will cease to exist. They are beings to be believed in, feared, avoided, respected, worshipped, hated, despised, and given wishes.”

“You make it sound as if humans and aberrations are incapable of getting along.”

“We are. Aberrations are inherently different from us. We can choose our nature, they cannot. However, there is an exception. Some aberrations either once were human or are still partially human, we call them demihumans. They often retain their human values and choose to live as humans do, while still finding a way to fulfill their nature. Creatures such as ghosts, or werebeasts are considered to be demihumans.”

“And I suppose that if I should ever encounter further supernatural beings, I ought to come to you for advice?”

“Myself, Ozpin, or Professor Peach. There are others who know as much as we do at this school, but they are often less understanding of certain issues associated with matters of the supernatural.”

“I see. Do you have any further advice to provide regarding my situation?”

“I’m afraid not.” Glynda had spent a great deal of the weekend researching curses, and how the Cuckoo might be removed, but everything she found indicated that the host must simply be stronger than the curse, or be lost.

“Thank you for your time, professor. You have given me a great deal of useful information. But if there is nothing else, I must be going now.” Weiss stood.

“No, that is all.” Glynda gestured for Weiss to leave. What a shockingly composed young woman, especially under these circumstances.

###### Weiss

Following her meeting with Professor Goodwitch, Weiss caught up with the rest of her team in a training room. Ruby had seen fit to schedule weekly practice for all of them in the time that they had free on Tuesdays. They needed it, not for the sake of their individual combat abilities so much as their ability to work together. 

It was strange to go about a day as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. So far, Weiss had managed to avoid saying anything egregious to any of her teammates, but she could feel the near misses, surges of violent and alien emotions, filling her with disgust, hatred, and arrogance that wasn’t hers. She could only assume that her father must feel similarly.

There had been a time in which Weiss believed her father to be dear to her. When she had thought that everything done to her was simply because of her own failures to meet his expectations. Of course, eventually she realized that it was actually a matter of being as utterly cruel as he expected her to be. Something she had never been able to do, save perhaps in her feelings for the White Fang. But, well, that hatred was justified. Just look at them, they were violent criminals who were slowly stealing what seemed to be all of the dust in Vale.

The scene Weiss walked into on reaching the training session was a very odd one. Ruby was perched precariously atop Yang’s shoulders with her legs wrapped tightly around her neck, wings spread and her entire body subtly vibrating as she shed rose petals. 

Suddenly, some sort of threshold seemed to be reached as both Ruby and Yang disappeared into a burst of yellow and red rose petals that blurred across the room at high speed. They passed Blake, who was holding something resembling a gun in their direction, only to rematerialize and collapse into a pile of limbs a few seconds later as laughter filled the room. 

“That was awesome!” Yang’s hair was just as perfectly put together as usual, despite her brief burst of speed. “You feel like that every time you use your semblance?”

“Yep!” Ruby popped the p brightly. 

“What exactly is going on?” Weiss eyed the laughing mess of limbs cautiously as its occupants separated themselves.

“Today is semblance training day!” Ruby jumped to attention, leaving Yang to languish happily on the floor.

“And you allowed this to happen?” Weiss looked to Blake questioningly.

“They needed someone to measure how fast they were moving.” Blake smirked, brimming with faux-innocence.

“That is not what I mean, and you know it.” Weiss scowled. Blake was supposed to be the sane and reasonable one in this team, aside from herself. “There was no need for them to do whatever it was they were doing whilst riding piggyback. What if Ruby had fallen?”

“Weiss, come on, my aura would have protected me.” Ruby rolled her eyes. “Besides, that way is way more fun.”

“What were you even attempting to accomplish?” 

“We were seeing if I could take someone with me with my semblance and what would happen if I did. Speaking of which,” Ruby looked at Blake, “what was our speed?”

Blake consulted the object in her hands. “About six hundred miles an hour.” 

“That’s about the speed I would be going under those circumstances normally.” Ruby nodded, deep in thought. “Neat.”

“Your semblance is that fast?” Weiss raised an eyebrow skeptically.

“I can break the sound barrier if I want to.” Ruby shrugged, as if it was nothing to accelerate the combined mass of her and her weapon to the speed of sound using a semblance. The fastest Weiss had ever moved was about a hundred miles an hour, though only when using a time dilation glyph, a process that was incredibly draining.

“Why do you not therefore use your semblance to simply ram opponents in combat?”

“That’s not how it works. I’m pretty sure that when I’m bursting all the way it’s actually reducing my mass to almost nothing to let me go really fast. Meaning that if I hit something I’ll just go around it, or rematerialize. If I use my semblance just a little bit I can apply a bit of force on myself in any direction. Taking Yang with me at near full speed was only harder in that it took more effort for me to get us going, but then we moved at the same speed.” Ruby grinned madly. “Isn’t learning fun?”

“Indeed, your semblance is most fascinating.” Weiss nodded. “It is a shame that your voracious appetite for knowledge only applies to a select few subject matters.”

“Hey, you’re only barely getting a low A in survival right now with my help.” 

Weiss cringed. She did not need to be reminded of that. Although perhaps it was no longer an issue, given that her father had already done something worse than she could have ever imagined he may do if he were unsatisfied with her academic performance.

“Anyway,” Yang tactfully imposed herself into the conversation, “Blake, what was it about your semblance that you wanted to work on?” 

“I figured out a way to do a little bit more with it.” Blake smirked knowingly. Then rather than explain, she closed her eyes and stepped to the side, leaving behind an image of herself. Both Blakes opened their eyes and smirked.

“How is that different from usual?” Yang observed the clone closely.

“Attack me and find out.” Blake spoke with one voice, but Weiss couldn’t tell which Blake was speaking.

“Alright.” Yang needed no further provocation, and snapped into a fighting stance before attacking the image Blake had left behind. To the surprise of nearly everyone in the room, the clone brought up its blade and blocked the strike. Yang stood there for a moment, utterly flabbergasted. “Well that’s new. This is the clone, right?”

The Blake directly in front of Yang faded away into shadows as the real Blake wiggled her eyebrows tauntingly. “I don’t know, is it?”

“Now look here...” Yang raised a fist in mock anger and began muttering nonsense under her breath. 

“Basically, I can control my clones and use them to fight now. They actually can’t take a hit though, or I feel a ton of phantom pain because our senses are actually linked when I make one like that.” 

“Your senses are linked?” Weiss’ eyes widened. That was impressive. The sheer usefulness of a single fighter being able to function as two was a universal boon. “How much aura does this expend?”

“It only uses a little bit more of my aura than making a shadow clone does, but the phantom pain debilitated me the last time I used it. Against Torchwick.” Blake shuddered.

“You sure you wanna work on this right now?” Yang protectively took a step closer to Blake.

“I want to work on it to make sure that I’m never in a situation like that again.” Blake smiled reassuringly, but Weiss could still pick out the hint of pain tempering her will. It reminded her of herself.

“Alright, what should we do?”

“We’ll spar, me and a clone against two of you guys. I need to try to be able to sever my connection to a clone before they get hit.” Blake took up a ready stance.

“It would probably be best to fight myself and Yang then,” Weiss volunteered, “we aren’t liable to end up cutting off a clone’s limb when we hit it.”

For a while they sparred in those pairs, and both Blakes performed just as well as Blake did under ordinary circumstances, save for their inability to take hits. A few times Blake suddenly doubled over in pain as her clone dissipated, but after a few tries she started making it dissipate before it was hit. Then a new oddity occurred.

Weiss stared quizzically at the quickly dissipating shows before her as Blake and Yang relaxed for another short break. “Wasn’t I fighting the real Blake?”

Blake’s expression quickly began to mirror Weiss’ own. “Were you?” She closed her eyes and concentrated. “I don’t know. Come to think of it, I haven’t personally taken a hit once so far, have I?”

“No, you haven’t.” Ruby had been carefully observing Blake’s semblance and keeping track of progress as they sparred.

“I guess this means that I can swap places with them.” Blake tented her fingers. “Interesting.”

“Actually, what if it’s more than that?” Ruby’s eyes shot wide as she had an idea. “What if you’re actually somehow existing in two places at once? That would explain why you can see out of both yous at the same time.”

“Perhaps the afterimages you leave behind when using your semblance normally are not so much constructs, as they are images of moments in time. Or alternate versions of yourself that did not avoid the blow.” Weiss was beginning to get excited. “The potential physical and metaphysical implications are astonishing.” Add into the equation the consideration that, as she had interpreted Professor Goodwitch’s previous lecture or sorts, Blake was a being not entirely grounded in reality, and the possibilities were incredible.

“You’ve completely lost me.” Yang shook her head. “Metaphysics is nonsense as far as I’m concerned.”

“I’m pretty sure that it is all just shadows. And as much as I would like to try explaining something that I don’t fully understand to you, I think I need something of a snack first.” Blake subtly shot a look at Weiss. “All of this practice has made me thirsty.”

“Well,” Yang checked her scroll, “I suppose I can find something else to occupy the rest of my time this morning. I can always use more time in the library doing extra research to fill in on my background knowledge.”

Ruby suddenly went slack-jawed. “I forgot to go shopping last night! I was supposed to do that, wasn’t I.”

Weiss blinked. That was convenient. “Yes, you’d better get that done.” Ruby immediately dashed off.

Once Ruby and Yang were gone, Blake jokingly held out her elbow to Weiss. “Shall we?”

“Obviously.” Weiss rolled her eyes and began to walk to the dorm. She was thankful to have her back to Blake as a sudden wave of trepidation about feeding filled her. The previous instance had been unfortunate in nature. She may have lied about certain things, even to herself. Allowing Blake to drink her blood once again may very well result in more lies, at a time when it was most likely more important than ever to allow herself to flourish. However, there was a measure of time available to her however, so perhaps serious considerations of Blake could be held off for a few weeks without regret. 

One particular aspect of what Professor Goodwitch had said continued to haunt her. The idea that Blake was acting out of instinct, and did not in truth care about Weiss’ comfort was an insidious one. Exactly what about the way that Blake had treated her was simply a trait forced upon her in the same way that traits were being forced upon Weiss, and what was truly Blake?

###### Blake

Weiss didn’t say much as they walked back to the dorm together. Blake didn’t mind, she was quite thirsty indeed after all of that semblance use, and she took the time to simply savour Weiss’ scent on her tongue. Weiss did not provide much comment as she lay down in her bed and gestured expectantly at her neck once again, as if the entire matter were routine at this point. 

Blake obliged Weiss right away, laying on top of her and going straight for gently showering the tender flesh of her neck in kisses. Weiss was tense, her body wound up tightly, prompting Blake to frown in concern as she held her a little bit more tightly and made an effort to be that much more gentle.

“What are you waiting for? Get on with it already.” Weiss’ voice was tense, almost angry, and Blake felt that she had to pull back, moving to a sitting position next to Weiss.

“Something’s wrong.” Blake looked down at Weiss sadly. Her entire posture screamed discomfort and uncertainty. “Weiss, what’s wrong?”

Weiss’ breath caught in her throat. “Everything.” She quickly shook her head and scowled, affecting a veneer of annoyance. “It doesn’t matter, just finish your damn business already.” 

“I can’t do that.” Slowly, Blake picked up one of the hands that was at Weiss’ side and clasped it between her own. Weiss didn’t object. “I’m not going to drink your blood if you aren’t comfortable with it.”

“I assure you, I am perfectly comfortable with this. There are simply other matters distracting me.”

“Well, if something else is bothering you, maybe you could tell me about it?” Blake was hesitant, mostly because she was afraid Weiss would say no. When Weiss said nothing, she tried to explain herself. “Because I know that we aren’t _that_ close, but I think that you’re a good person, and I’d like to get to know you better if you don’t mind, and I’m not like trying to hit on you after that whole thing that happened before I really j-”

“It’s my father.” A slow shudder traveled from the hand that was being held and through Weiss’ body. All at once, she seemed to be on the verge of tears.

“Oh.” Blake couldn’t find anything to say. She had always figured that a sadistic, evil, and money-hungry megalomaniac would make a bad father, it was a part of why she had been ready enough to forgive Weiss for some of her poorly chosen words.

“He...” Weiss trailed off, and the tears burst free. The hand Blake held clenched tightly in hers. “I might not be the person you think is good for much longer. He cursed me.”

“He _cursed_ you?” Blake stared in confusion.

Weiss explained what had been happening ever since the day when she collapsed, first the curse, and then what more detailed information she had obtained from Professor Goodwitch. Throughout the entire story, Weiss’ tears never completely stopped.

“Holy shit.” Blake’s breathing was irregular, and she thought that she might break into tears as well. “That’s so fucked up. If I didn’t already wish your dad was dead, I would now.”

Weiss laughed bitterly, but her laughter didn’t stop, instead it became increasingly unhinged. Eventually, she pulled herself together enough to speak. “What was it that you said last night? Mood?”

“Yeah, mood.” Blake chuckled and shook her head.

“Blake,” Weiss sat up in her bed, bringing their faces very near, “thank you.” For a moment Blake thought something else may happen, but Weiss wrapped her arms around Blake in a tight hug. 

“If it means anything, I think you can make it. You’re stubborn enough.” Blake hugged back.

“ _Does_ it mean anything?” Weiss was suddenly bitter again as she ended the hug. “Does anything you’ve said or done mean anything, or has it all been the actions of a creature, bound by its nature?”

“I... what?” It took Blake a moment to remember that Weiss didn’t know she was a Faunus, and when she did she was still left staring at her. “What are you talking about?”

“I’ve told you about what Professor Goodwitch told me. How an aberration is subject to its nature. What parts of the way that you have treated me are real? What of it is merely a byproduct of what you have become?” 

“You think that becoming a vampire changed who I am? Or that I’m just some sort of slave to my instincts now?” Blake withdrew slightly. She had wondered that herself, for a while. “No. That’s not how it is Weiss. I’m still me. You know how close Yang and I are, if I was suddenly different, she would notice. When I’ve held you, and drunk your blood, I make sure that you’re comfortable because I want to, because it’s who I am. When I go along with my instinct, it’s just something that’s telling me how to do things, and maybe a little bit of what I should do, but I’m in control, it’s my moral compass guiding me.”

“Okay.” Weiss took a deep breath, then nodded. She looked at Blake cautiously. “In that case, I would like to continue.” Slowly, she leaned back into bed, assuming the position with her neck exposed that had become something of a habit.

“Alright.” Blake smiled. She leaned in once again, and this time it was right. Weiss relaxed into the soft kisses that Blake trailed along her jawline and down her neck. Blake indulged herself by protectively covering Weiss’ body with her own a little bit more than usual before sinking her fangs into Weiss’ neck. Sweet blood trickled into her mouth once again, and she happily sated her thirst. As she pulled away from Weiss, it was a surprise to realize that at some point she had become okay with this, most of it. The faint smile on Weiss’ face after every feeding did wonders to mollify her.

Somehow, Blake ended up serving as Weiss’ big spoon in the bed, both of them laying there in silence.

“What is this?” Blake needed to ask.

“I don’t know.” Weiss stared at the underside of Ruby’s bunk above them. 

“Me neither.” Blake stared at the same spot, looking for answers. She shouldn’t even be thinking like this. For fucks sake, Weiss didn’t even know that she was a Faunus, much less that she was recently in the White Fang. And yet here they were, contemplating this strange bond that they had formed over Blake’s vampirism. 

“There are a great many reasons why I shouldn’t let anything happen between us.” Weiss sighed. “But, well, nearly all of them have to do with my father, and at this point I have nearly nothing more to lose in that regard, given that he’s already trying to strip me of my very identity.”

“If... if, later, you feel that you’re in a position to, and you want to do something, there are things that you should know first. More reasons why we probably shouldn’t.” Blake rubbed her forehead. What was she even saying? This was insanity.

“I will take that under consideration.” Weiss didn’t move. 

They stayed together for a while, but eventually they had to go to classes. It was a reluctant process, disentangling from each other. Blake wished for there to be an excuse to do this again sooner.

###### Yang

Yang groaned as she leaned back in the comfy library chair she was sitting in. This was the kind of business she didn’t enjoy at all. Earlier in the workshop, Ruby had helped her to take apart and reverse engineer Ember Celica to make blueprints for it. Because she hadn’t bought it or made it herself, she needed to fully plot out its design before she could modify it for Professor Mulberry’s class. Now, she needed to reproduce it in a CAD program to plan out potential changes. 

“Hey Ruby, could you tell me some more about our moms’ team? I need a break.” Figuring out the controls wasn’t too bad, but painstakingly reproducing information in the blueprints was tedious.

“Remembering stories isn’t really my thing.” Ruby looked happy to take a break. “I guess a little bit will probably come to me if I try though.”

“Actually, I was mostly wondering why it was that they broke up. And maybe also what my mom was like back then.” 

“I don’t know why they broke up. Mom and dad don’t really like talking about it.” Ruby pondered for a moment. “Although I do know that they all loved each other. Mom’s told me a bunch of stories about how Raven and Qrow would humiliate anyone who gave her trouble because she’s a Faunus, and then she’d tell them not to do that, but her and dad could never manage to do it with a straight face.”

“Humiliating racists? Maybe I should ask Summer for some ideas, beating them up does kinda get boring after a while.” Yang grinned, Summer sounded like an interesting person. 

“Don’t you dare do anything outside of the arena, I’ll tell you off.” Ruby couldn’t avoid smiling as she said it.

“I can take that. Even if you pout, it won’t change anything after the fact.” Yang smirked knowingly.

“Fine then, I’ll make sure you get detention if I have to.” Ruby stared Yang down confidently.

“Eh, detention is just a price you pay, it could always be worth it.” Yang shrugged.

“Detention with Professor Goodwitch.” Ruby deadpanned.

“Okay, you win,” Yang cringed. Detention with Professor Goodwitch meant extra close quarters combat training, which meant that she beat you up until she felt like moving on to something else for a little while, then beat you up more. It didn’t end when your aura broke. “I still want to hear these stories though.” 

“I was thinking of visiting home this weekend, you want to come with me?”

“You’d just... invite me like that?”

“Well, yeah. I bet my parents would love to meet you and hear about how Raven’s doing.” Ruby shrugged, but Yang could tell that there was more.

“And?” 

Ruby averted her gaze nervously. “And I like spending time around you. I could show you around the island a bit, if you want.”

“That sounds like a great way to spend a weekend. I am getting a bit restless all cooped up in one place this entire time anyway. I’m an explorer at heart, you know?” Yang frowned. “Although I’ll have to ask Professor Goodwitch I can take my math class remotely this week. She’ll probably go along with it, mostly because for some reason I almost get the impression that she doesn’t like me all that much.”

“She likes order, you’re chaos.” Ruby chuckled. “In a good way, though.”

“Still, you’d think we could get along a little bit better than we do, considering that we’re both blond. We’re like spirit sisters or something equally weird. Maybe she’s just secretly jealous of my chest or something. I mean, she’s almost as flat as Weiss is.” Yang laughed, then trailed off as she realized that Ruby had suddenly staring right behind her with wide eyes. “She’s standing right behind me, isn’t she?”

“Indeed, she is.” Goodwitch’s chilly voice came from directly behind Yang. “Be grateful that there are no rules against making such lascivious remarks about teachers, _yet_.”

“Can Yang do whatever class you guys do remotely this weekend?” All Ruby’s social awkwardness was sometimes accompanied by a surprising amount of bluntness.

“I will accept the substitution of a video call for our ordinary in person tutoring sessions in this instance. Only because you have been performing as well as can be expected in your studies. You will call my office at the usual time. If there is nothing else?” Ruby and Yang shook their heads. “Good. And miss Branwen, perhaps next time you should consider who may be listening before you speak.” With that parting shot Goodwitch stalked out of the library.

“Anyway, I’ll let my parents know that you and your comically large breasts are coming with me.” Ruby snickered.

“Comically large? Are you sure that you aren’t just jealous?” Yang was almost outraged, but she was pretty sure that Ruby was physically incapable of insulting someone and meaning it.

“Flat is justice, everyone knows that. Besides, I’m still growing.” Ruby huffed.

“Suuuuure.” Yang rolled her eyes. “Don’t get me wrong though, you’re still pretty hot.”

“Asdjfkg.” Ruby buried her head under her hands. “Just, let’s, uh get back to work.”

“Alright.” Yang stretched out her hands and got back to working with her CAD program. Damn, Ruby was cute when she was flustered. And flustering her was really easy. It was adorable.


	13. Forces of Attraction

###### Pyrrha

“Hey, you did better that time.” Pyrrha sheathed Miló as she offered a hand to Jaune, who had just been knocked down for the umpteenth time this evening. He was getting better at fighting, at about the rate that you could expect anyone to get better, which was not very quickly at all.

“Yeah, I guess.” Jaune sighed once he was back on his feet, Crocea Mors hanging at his side. They’d only been training for about half an hour, but he looked tired.

“What’s wrong?” Pyrrha put a hand on Jaune’s shoulder, steadying him.

“Nothing.” Jaune shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

“Jaune...” Pyrrha frowned. Something was clearly wrong. Earlier in the day when Weiss had retrieved Ruby from their dorm, he hadn’t even seemed to notice the heiress’ presence, much less pine once Weiss had left the room like he usually did. She’d liked to think that he was getting over Weiss at the time, but that didn’t seem to be quite right. 

What was with Jaune’s crush on Weiss anyway? Sure Weiss was pretty, in a kind of restrictive, traditionalist way, but that was actually just about all that Pyrrha knew about her. They never really interacted with each other, and Pyrrha was beginning to get the impression that Weiss was avoiding her, but she couldn’t tell why. She didn’t really mind though, she’d spent plenty of time around people from high society, and they always ended up treating her like a curiosity. The Invincible Girl, who had grown oh so very skilled and famous despite her common birth. Besides, she liked women with more meat on their bones, like Nora. 

“Oh, fine. There’s some stuff that’s wrong. Just, stop staring at me like that, it’s creepy.” Jaune cowed before her as Pyrrha was snapped out of her thoughts.

“Hmmm? Sorry, I was distracted.” 

“Aww, man. Am I going to have to repeat my entire monologue about my tragic backstory then?” Jaune groaned exaggeratedly.

“I wasn’t that distracted.” Pyrrha laughed, and sat down with her legs swinging off the edge of the roof.

“I don’t know, you looked about as out of it as Nora gets when Ren starts cooking.” Jaune chuckled and sat down next to her. 

“So. What’s wrong? Is it Cardin?” Pyrrha hadn’t seen much of anything happening between Jaune and Cardin lately, but she also hadn’t seen anyone else beat Cardin up during combat training.

“Well, yes, but also no.” Jaune sighed. “He’s annoying, but not really all that big of a deal. I mean, seriously, I had to deal with worse in high school. He’s acting like a kid. But there was something he said that’s kind of starting to get to me.”

“What’s he saying?”

“I don’t belong here.” Every part of Jaune’s body began to slump in on itself as he said it.

“Jaune, of course you-”

“No, I mean literally. I literally should not be here, at Beacon. Why do you think I’m so incompetent when it comes to anything that isn’t a part of a general education? Or how I’m so unskilled in combat? Seriously, look at me. How could I have ever gotten into a huntsmans’ academy when I can barely fight?” Jaune angrily gestured at himself.

“I don’t know.” Pyrrha had never really stopped to consider how Jaune had gotten here in the first place. She may have been somewhat blinded by her satisfaction with the fact that he was the only person at this school with whom her reputation didn’t precede her. And the crush that she had as a result.

“It’s because I faked my transcripts. I never went to a qualified combat school, I never even got a little bit of training from my dad. I just took Crocea Mors off of the mantle above the fireplace at home, ran away, and made up a transcript that sounded good.” Jaune stared at Pyrrha for a long moment. 

“Oh.” Pyrrha nodded slowly. “That does... explain all of that.”

“Yeah.” Jaune suddenly looked nervous. “So... now what? Are you going to report me?”

“Of course not. I don’t really care that you faked your transcripts, actually.” Pyrrha looked up at the sky. There weren’t many stars visible here, close to Vale as they were.

“You don’t think I shouldn’t be here?”

“We’ve been living together for nearly three weeks. I think you have what it takes to be a huntsman. You’ve worked hard to improve yourself, and you’re already a natural tactician and a great man. Besides, if you go, who’s going to lead us? Ren? Nora?” Pyrrha laughed, suddenly affected with an image of Nora wearing a pirate hat and turning team JNPR into a pirate crew for some reason.

“You’d be a better team leader than I would.”

“Oh no. I wouldn’t, I promise.” Pyrrha shook her head. “I... prefer to be led, when it’s someone I can trust. And that’s the thing, you were made the leader because you’re the one who came up with the plan to beat that death stalker at initiation. We’ve all got our strengths and weaknesses, and your strengths just happen to lie outside of direct combat. I think that that’s a good thing.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. I’ve been fighting for most of my life, it hasn’t really left me time to do some of the other things I wish I could.” Pyrrha stood back up and pulled Jaune to his feet after her. “So don’t be too hard on yourself, okay?”

“I’ll try.” Jaune smiled wanly. “Thanks Pyrrha, you’re a really good friend.” He pulled her into a hug.

“Yeah, a friend.” Pyrrha smiled sadly as a flaming arrow shot through her heart.

###### Blake

“Do you know why I’ve asked you to come here?” Professor Peach had asked Blake to come to her office at the end of plant science, providing no explanation. Now, she was here.

“I can’t even guess.” Blake shrugged, even as she reflexively searched the room for an ideal means of escape. Peach was one of the nicer and more sane professors, but being asked to speak with her when she was doing pretty well in her class was concerning. There were plenty of things for her to be nervous about revealing to the school, after all.

“You don’t need to worry about saying something you wouldn’t want the school to know, although Ozpin probably already knows more than you would expect. I’m sworn to keep secrets about this kind of thing.” Peach leaned back in her chair and let her long brown hair out of its bun. “I didn’t ask you here as a professor, more as a councilor.” 

“Look, there are a lot of things you could be talking about, so I’d really appreciate it if you just flat out said what you suspect. I’m not going to volunteer more personal information than I have to.” Blake didn’t feel very at ease, even though it was pretty clear that Peach was trying.

“Alright. Some members of the faculty that deal with this kind of matter have come to suspect that you may be a demihuman.” Peach casually folded her hands together, watching Blake impassively.

“Oh.” Blake did her best to hide behind the chair she was currently sitting in without standing up. She considered making a clone and running away. But where would she even go?

“It’s alright, really, I’m on your side.” Peach held up her hands, palms out. “I’m a demihuman too. A were-tanuki. I just want to help you, because I’m pretty sure that you only became whatever you are now recently.”

“So...” Blake took a deep breath, “you’re saying that you don’t know what I am yet?”

“No, only anyone you’ve told would know.”

“Do I... do I have to tell you?” 

“Well, no. But you probably should so that I can help you. Nobody else in the faculty has to find out if you don’t want them to.” Peach smiled reassuringly.

“I’ll consider it.” Blake was starting to relax a little bit, but she still felt ready to make a shadow clone at any moment. Could she put one outside of the office? It would only have to be about five feet away from her. “Why do you think that I need help?”

“Did something important to you happen on Monday night during the week after initiation?”

“What!” That was the night that Blake had told Weiss that she was a vampire, and fed from her.

“That confirms it then. I assume that you already know most of the contents of Glynda’s spiel on the supernatural from Weiss?” 

“Yeah.” Blake stared at Peach. “What’s going on? What’s important about that night?”

“I think that you know what’s important about it. You see, Glynda is an expert in dealing with aberrations, and she helps any students that may have trouble with them. I’m an expert on demihumans, and it’s my job to help my students adjust to their new selves. On that night you began to embrace who you are now, and entered into a state of flux. We call it Harmonization. It’s functionally like puberty for demihumans, in which they must discover how their new nature aligns with who they are.” 

“Isn’t their nature fixed if they have to be the kind of aberration that they are now?”

“There’s more than just one possibility in what they can be, nearly every time. Have you ever heard of there being only one kind of ghost, or of all werewolves being exactly the same, or do you think that there’s only one way in which people perceive vampires?” 

“Okay, yeah. I think I get it. That’s actually really reassuring.” Blake relaxed a little bit. “I don’t have to be the kind of aberration that hurts people. Although,” she smiled, thinking of the face Weiss made whenever she fed, “I guess I’ve already gotten past that, at least a little bit.”

“That’s good. I could give some examples, if you wouldn’t mind telling me what kind of demihuman you are?”

“I’m a vampire.” 

Peach’s eyes widened, and for a moment she looked as if she was about to stand up and draw her weapon. After a moment of thought she relaxed slightly, though she seemed about to stand up from her chair at any moment. “How did you become a vampire?”

“There was a stone mask, and when someone’s blood was put on it it turned me.” Blake was similarly tense, her nervousness rushing back to her.

“Good.” Peach relaxed. “You see, there are three major subcategories of vampires. The rarest and most dangerous are pure vampires, sometimes called Hot-Blooded, Cold-Blooded, Iron-Blooded vampires. Their origins are unknown, and they are incredibly dangerous and powerful beings with no care to do anything but continue to live. They will also rarely turn others into vampires like them. However, given that you have been beneath sunlight without bursting into flame, I can tell that you aren’t one of those. Second are the more traditional vampires. Predatory, possessive, and demanding, they usually kill their victims, but can choose not to. Lastly, and what I would guess you most likely are, given that there have been no vampiric murders in Vale of late, are vampires that are seen as being more... erotic in nature.”

“Erotic?” Blake stared at Peach. That... actually sort of made sense, considering both Weiss’ and her own reaction to feeding. She had also read more than her fair share of erotic vampire novels, though they had lost their appeal lately, for obvious reasons.

“Or if you are so inclined, the better word may be sapphic.” Peach was somehow saying this with a straight face. 

“I am bi.”

“That seems likely to be the case then.” Peach nodded. “Such inclinations are more common to be the case among LGBT individuals. I am actually of a similar nature as a were-tanuki. My wife loves to bury her face in my fur when I’m transformed.” She smiled conspiratorially. 

“So then, having a nature like this, is it possible that it might be affecting my feelings toward people?”

“Got a crush on whoever’s been letting you drink their blood huh?” Peach smirked. “It’s not quite the same, but when I transform I get very affectionate, but only towards people that I already have feelings for. In my experience, it’s only serving to make us more honest with our feelings, rather than fabricating them.”

“Well... yeah. I guess so.” Blake shifted in her chair. Fine, she had a crush on Weiss, and it wasn’t her vampiric tendencies’ fault.

“Your Harmonization period is probably almost over then, given that you already seem to have settled pretty well into a particular role. If you wanted to, you could probably deliberately feed from someone without their permission, and even kill them to change what kind of vampire you are, but I’m sure that you wouldn’t want to.” Peach chuckled.

“Of course not!” Blake suddenly realized that she hated the idea of even feeding from anyone other than Weiss, even with their permission.

“Which brings me to the last thing that you need to know. If you stop acting like what you are once your Harmonization is complete, you will cease to exist.” Peach turned suddenly serious. “Gone, and you could take as much as everything in a twenty meter radius with you. Reality itself will simply reject you. Not immediately, of course, it would take months of living a lie or a series of highly anathema acts to cause such a thing to happen.”

“That’s... a lot.”

“Indeed. Fortunately, it isn’t that difficult to avoid, so long as we don’t delude ourselves. I think you’ll do fine. And if you ever need help or have more questions, feel free to come to me.” 

“Thanks.” Blake smiled slightly. “You’ve given me a lot to think about.”

###### Ruby

“Hey, Weiss? Could you help me out with this? I can’t quite get the hardlight dust projector to project the right shape.” Ruby sighed and set down the partially finished hand replacement she was working on. It was nearly a fully functioning chainsaw hand.

“Are you still trying to make a hardlight chainsaw?” Weiss swiveled in her expensive office chair and rolled over to Ruby’s desk in their dorm room. Despite Weiss’ protests that it was important to have proper lumbar support, Ruby was pretty sure that she had only gotten the chair because of the wheels. “I’ve told you, sustained hardlight projections are placed onto a fixed point of reference, having moving parts in such a construct is impossible.”

“Good thing I made a point of reference for it then.” Ruby smirked and gestured for Weiss to take a look at the machine guts splayed across her desk.

“What?” Weiss began to piece together the mechanism in her head. “You installed a rubber strip that wraps around the stationary hardlight body of the chainsaw as it is projected, and onto which the blades are projected. Interesting, even if the weapon is nonetheless utterly impractical.”

“Right, but the secondary projector for the blades isn’t reprinting over the blades accurately as they pass, it’s making it shatter and overlap.” 

“How pure is this hardlight dust?” Weiss picked up the vial of hardlight that was connected to the secondary projector and eyed it carefully in the light.

“It’s point five percent impure.” Ruby followed Weiss’ gase. “I got it as pure as I could afford because it needs the structural integrity.”

“I recommend using a mixture about one percent less pure. It will slightly reduce structural integrity, but should also allow the printer to reinforce it more accurately by providing more non dust material for the targeting systems to work with. The loss in structural integrity shouldn’t be especially relevant for the blades given that they will be automatically replaced or repaired if broken anyway.” 

“Ohhh, nice. Thanks Weiss!” Ruby beamed at her partner. Weiss was secretly nice, even though she usually pretended not to be. “Do you need help with anything in return?”

“I am having difficulties finding topics for this essay assigned to us by Professor Greene. About how Grimm can endanger people and damage the environment indirectly.” Weiss frowned at the floor in the way that she did whenever she was chastising herself.

“That’s easy. There’s Grimm rot, deforestation, the driving away of native animals, and poisoning of natural water supplies. I’m also a pretty good source about Grimm rot in particular.”

“Why would you be especially knowledgeable about it?”

“That’s how I lost my arm. My uncle had to do a field amputation because I got knocked over, scraped my elbows on the ground, and then some residue got in the scrapes. My mom was really mad at him once I got out of the hospital.” Ruby started putting away the parts of the new hand, she couldn’t finish it without the lower quality dust, so it would have to wait a little. 

“Would telling me about it not be... difficult for you?”

“Nah, it hurt, and then I got better. It’s really not as big a deal as everyone always seems to think it must be. Looking back, the whole ‘evil foreign matter slowly growing through my veins and causing intense pain as it changes my physiology’ thing is actually kinda hot, in a way.” Ruby hummed happily, momentarily distracted from her work by the thought.

“I did _not_ need to learn your opinion of that.” Weiss looked like she was in pain as she returned to her desk. “Thank you for the other information, but after getting that image stuck in my head, I believe that I will rely on other sources for my information.”

“Your loss.” Ruby shrugged.

“It truly is not a loss, in fact it is preventing any further loss of sanity.” 

“Good luck finding information as detailed as what I can tell you on the internet or in a textbook. You know they actually showed me what happened to my arm after the fact? It was very interesting.” Ruby dangled her bait before Weiss.

There was a long silence as Weiss no doubt attempted to research things on her own. The clacking of her keyboard gradually increased in speed until she gave in. “Fine! What happened to your arm?”

“When I saw it again two days after it got separated from it it was all wrinkled and grey, the fingernails had gotten long and sharp, and it was almost like it was beginning to grow scales. It was seriously metal.” 

“That is fascinating. Why wasn’t it studied? Recorded?”

“The doctors deemed it a biohazard as soon as they realized my uncle had grabbed it from the clearing where it all happened and burned it.” 

“Odd. There appears to be no reliable information whatsoever about what happens to a limb that is removed or when grimm rot is allowed to run its course.”

“Well, people die when it runs its course, right?” 

“Certainly.” The contemplative frown in Weiss’ voice could be heard from across the room. “Yet I see no public autopsy reports of victims available. Although it is rare enough that I doubt the opportunity to study it would be common.” 

“Yeah, that must be it. We really don’t know much about it, besides symptoms. It makes sense, because normally if it happens in the field whoever gets it needs to be left behind because they won’t be able to make it to medical attention.”

“This is still very odd.”

“I know, right? Still, it's not like we can investigate it by infecting people on purpose.”

“Indeed.”

Ruby sighed and finished putting away her stuff that chainsaw hand was so close to being done, and after that she’d have to start working on a way to use Yang’s artillery dust. So much to do, so little time. She loved it.

###### Weiss

Weiss liked Vale’s weather. Atlas had always been cold and dreary, the nearly always overcast. Here, the sun was out more often than not, and she would actually stand a chance of getting some sort of tan if it weren’t for the fact that she burned as quickly as a crepe. 

That was why, when she needed to be away from the pressure of being around others for a little while, she tended to do so outside. She had managed to find a very nice spot on top of the dorm building that was shaded by the shape of the roofing from afternoon onward, and that was where she sat, thinking about Blake.

It was more difficult than it should be to rationalize her emotions. She kept being distracted by thoughts of Blake holding her, kissing her, and drinking her blood. Separating such thoughts from her consideration of their emotional connection was inexplicably difficult. She was so distracted by these thoughts that she didn’t even notice the sound of the rooftop door opening, or the person who joined her in the shade, until they spoke.

“Hey Weiss.” A gentle, vaguely familiar voice jolted Weiss from her thoughts.

“Pyrrha?” Weiss stared at the champion fighter before her in surprise. “Were you looking for me?” It seemed implausible, but she couldn’t think of why else Pyrrha would be up here.

“No, actually. I just come up here sometimes.” Pyrrha settled herself in a respectful distance from Weiss and looked up at the clear sky. “It’s nice to get away from everyone’s expectations for a while. Lets me think more clearly.”

“That is... why I come here as well.” Weiss was surprised. She’d considered Pyrrha to be someone who naturally achieved what they wanted. The more she thought about it, the more ridiculous it seemed, given the success that was demanded of her. They had something in common.

“Oh.” Pyrrha shot a glance at Weiss, and she seemed to be mildly surprised in the same fashion as Weiss.

“If you don’t mind my asking, what are you thinking about?” Weiss felt that she needed a distraction of some kind. Perhaps it could help her to concentrate without trying.

“Jaune, mostly.” Pyrrha sighed.

“Is he still...” Weiss wasn’t sure how to say it.

“Pining over you? Yeah.” Pyrrha sighed again, a note of frustration creeping into her expression.

“My apologies.” Weiss shrugged helplessly. “If it is any consolation, I am gay. Do not tell him that however, it is not something that I want to be widely known.”

“Don’t worry, I’m in the same position. It would be awful if the public found out I’m bi.” Pyrrha shook her head.

“Are your parents not supportive of you?” Weiss realized that she had no idea who Pyrrha’s parents even were.

“Oh, they’re supportive all right.” Pyrrha cringed. “I told them pretty much as soon as I realized I was bi. They were very enthusiastic about the marketing opportunities. I backtracked as soon as I realized what was happening, saying that I was still questioning, and they shouldn’t jump the gun in case I was wrong.” She shook her head. “They meant well, but ever since I won my first tournament they’d started acting like managers first, and parents second.” There was a long silence.

“That sounds incredibly lonely.” Weiss knew loneliness.

“It was. Your parents? If it’s okay.” 

“My mother is too dead to the world to understand much of anything anyone says to her these days. If my father had somehow found out when I was still a minor he probably would have sent me away to some sort of _therapy_.” Weiss shuddered. She’d never even dared to tell Winter.

“That’s horrible.” Pyrrha’s fists were clenched at her side.

“By the time I realized that I like women I was already pretty used to existential terror. It didn’t change much.” Weiss sighed, then chuckled as a sudden thought struck her. “These days, I think that I’m starting to look forward to him finding out.”

“How’s that?” Pyrrha raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

“I can just imagine the look on his face if I started making out with Blake right in front of him.” Weiss smirked sadistically. That would be glorious. She loved pissing him off, and this time there wouldn’t be any consequences, or if there were she could probably get a Valian restraining order.

“You and Blake are dating?” 

“Almost. It’s complicated, and the reason why I came here. I think I’ve just answered at least one of my own questions though.” Weiss smiled, just a little bit. She would never even consider letting that man know about a relationship she wasn’t serious about, lest it be used against her.

“Well congratulations. I hope it works out for you.” 

“Me too.” Weiss muttered under her breath, then stood up. “I’ll leave you to think in peace now.” She thought about leaving, but her legs didn’t carry her anywhere, instead she looked at Pyrrha. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. I enjoyed your company.” Pyrrha smiled and stood up with her arms open, inviting a hug.

“As did I.” Weiss hesitantly considered Pyrrha’s offer, then slowly stepped forward, letting Pyrrha give her a quick hug as she tried to reciprocate appropriately. She was pretty sure that she had never hugged anyone before this week. Realistically, she probably had hugged Winter, but it was so long ago and behind so many things better off forgotten that she could scarcely remember.

“Do it again sometime?”

“Yes, let's.” With one last small wave, Weiss left the roof.

###### Yang

Sparring with Weiss was a congenial enough experience, and not a bad way to spend a Friday afternoon while she waited the rest of the day’s classes to end so that she and Ruby could go to Patch. Weiss was skillful, and it was good practice to go against an opponent with her level of skill. They didn’t exactly get along yet, but Yang was willing to be convinced that Weiss was genuine in her desire to change things for the better. She just hadn’t seen anything that convinced her yet.

“I concede.” Weiss dropped Myrtenaster and held up her hands in concession. Yang had managed to pin her arm and was posed to start pounding her until her aura broke, making it a practical decision.

“You seem less focused than usual. Didn’t put up a very good fight. Kind of boring really.” Yang smirked. She still did get a certain satisfaction out of fighting a Schnee and winning.

Weiss scowled heavily. “It would be nothing to beat you in a fair fight-” She suddenly brought a hand to her head, her face twisting with pain. “But for this damned headache!” 

“A headache?” Blake’s attention was grabbed from her sparring match with Ruby, allowing Ruby to get a good blow in. “Hold on.” She gestured for Ruby to wait and started to walk over to Weiss with a concerned look on her face.

“To think,” Weiss was muttering angrily under her breath, “that I would be betrayed by my own body and be defeated by such a creature as yourself.” She stood up straight and plunged Myrtenaster into the ground. “An animal! Inferior fucking scum! Unfit to-” 

“Weiss! Shut up!” Blake clasped her hand over Weiss’ mouth as Yang watched in confusion. 

“Sooo clearly this is something weird and abnormal happening here.” Yang sheathed Ember Celica and shook her head. “There better be an explanation for this.” A sudden and muffled sob grabbed her attention.

Across the room, Ruby was leaning against Crescent Rose, still in its scythe form. There was another sob as she wiped her face with her sleeve. That... that was the last straw.

“Explain.” Yang growled, stepping forward and grabbing onto the scruff of Weiss’ bolero as she glared straight into her eyes.

“Whoa, Yang. Hold on, give her a second. Please? There’s an explanation, I promise.” Experimentally, Blake uncovered Weiss’ mouth. 

“I am recovered.” Weiss’ anger was gone, replaced with rampant shame. “Ruby, Yang I apologize for my words. I am not myself.”

“Explain.” Yang growled it again, shaking Weiss slightly in her grasp.

“If you would release me, I will do so.” Yang acquiesced, and watched as Weiss readjusted her bolero. She took a suspiciously long time.

“Well?”

“I require a moment!” Weiss snapped, then recoiled into herself. “This is a very disturbing and complex matter.”

Yang just glared.

“This may sound very strange, but Blake will corroborate its accuracy. I have been cursed.” Weiss explained her curse, and retold what Professor Goodwitch had told her about the realm of the supernatural.

“Well shit, if you’re telling the truth, I guess I can’t really be all that mad at you, for anything. Shit, your dad must be even more fucked up than you’d expect from all of the systemic abuse of his employees.” Yang shook her head in awe.

“It’s true.” Blake nodded.

“I’m really sorry, Weiss.” As Weiss had told her story, Ruby had gradually drawn closer, and now she looked like she was about to burst into tears again. “I’m not very good with words, but do you want a hug?”

Weiss took a long moment to stare at Ruby in confusion. “That would be acceptable.” 

Ruby jumped forward and wrapped Weiss in a big hug that included her wings. “It sounds so scary.” 

“It is.” Weiss didn’t let go of Ruby for a few minutes. Yang couldn’t help feeling sympathetic.

“So, Blake.” Yang turned her attention to her best friend. “What’s the deal here? Between you and Weiss? How are you the first one to be clued in on all of this?” 

“It’s... complicated. It has to do with him.” Blake pursed her lips. “I might actually tell you after all, but I need a little more time.”

“Alright.” Yang nodded. She knew better than to rush things with Blake. 

“So,” Weiss looked around uncertainly, “you don’t hate me?” 

“Of course not, you didn’t even say that!” Ruby squared her shoulders. “The bird did, or your dad, or whatever.”

“At this point it’s pretty clear that you’re a victim in this situation.” Yang shrugged, doing her best to let her residual anger roll off of her.

“Thank you for being so understanding.” Weiss sighed. “Though I doubt that I deserve it.”

“Of course you do.” Ruby pouted gently. “Everyone deserves to be accepted.”

“Even my father?” Weiss narrowed her eyes at Ruby.

“Yeah. There’s no way that he’s a happy or healthy person if he’s doing the things he does. It’s a good thing if he gets better.” Ruby nodded sternly.

“Do you ever stop being the most empathetic person I’ve ever met?” Yang ruffled Ruby’s hair.

“Nope!” Ruby happily popped the p.


	14. Patching Things Up

###### Yang

The airship ride to Patch wasn’t a very long one from Yang’s perspective, accompanied as it was by some light schoolwork and Ruby’s presence. For nearly the entire trip, Ruby rested her head softly against Yang’s shoulder, eyes closed as if she was asleep, although Yang was pretty sure that she wasn’t. Mostly because she could faintly hear the music Ruby was listening to, despite the fact that she was wearing headphones.

Patch really did look like a nice little island from the air. The entire place was pretty much covered with forest, except for the town itself, which was made primarily from colorful wood and stone, rather than concrete like Vale. 

As the airship pulled into the dock, Yang gently shook Ruby by the shoulder. “Hey, we're here.”

There was a heavy sigh as Ruby took off her headphones, only to immediately return to resting her head against Yang. She made a sound that sounded distinctly plaintive.

“I guess you can have another thirty seconds before we can actually start disembarking.” Yang chuckled. 

They ended up being the last two people off of the airship, and in the time it took for them to get off, Ruby didn’t say a word. Yang was a little concerned, but she figured it was just another autistic thing, so she didn’t bother doing anything about it.

It wasn’t hard to guess who Summer Rose was. The single most heavily muscled person in the crowd cooed happily and cried out to Ruby as soon as they were in sight. Summer was only slightly taller than Ruby, with the same black hair with red streaks, same red wings, and a silver eye. She radiated violence and danger in the same way that Raven did, but she didn’t bother to hide her kindness either as she laughed and scooped Ruby up into a backbreaking hug. 

“Holy shit, Ruby. Why didn’t you tell me your mom was so hot?” Yang whistled appreciatively, suddenly realizing that Ruby would probably age in at least a somewhat similar fashion.

“Oh? So those are the intentions you have for my daughter are they? To use her to get to my wife?” A blonde man who must have been Ruby's dad glowered intimidatingly at Yang.

“Nope. Definitely not.” Yang cleared her throat awkwardly. “I don’t have any intentions at all, I promise. I was mostly just joking, except I mean that she-” She felt like Ruby all of a sudden.

“I’m joking, I’m joking! Name’s Taiyang Xiao Long, but you can call me Tai.” Tai laughed. “What’s your name, young lady?”

“Yang Branwen.” Yang laughed a little, mostly at herself. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed Tai was joking, she normally got that kind of thing. 

Tai’s eyes widened and he immediately shared some kind of Look with Summer. “ _Oh_ , you’re Raven’s daughter. I guess that would explain where you got the balls to hit on a renowned huntress in front of her husband and child.”

“You didn’t tell them that?” Yang looked at Ruby, who was now free of Summer’s death grips.

“Nope. I wanted to surprise them.” Ruby smiled and turned to face her parents, throwing out her arms dramatically to present Yang. “Surprise!”

“How’s Rae doing? We haven’t had contact with each other since shortly after you were born.” Summer had a wistful look in her eye. 

“She’s happy. She’s leading a bandit clan in Mistral with my other mom.”

Tai snapped his fingers as he came upon a sudden realization. “I always figured she was byesexual.”

Summer and Ruby groaned in pain, and Yang nodded approvingly. “Nice. She does still tend to run away when she gets uncomfortable.”

“Only when she gets uncomfortable?” Summer raised an eyebrow. “It sounds like she really is doing well.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Yang wasn’t sure if she wanted to know.

“We should probably wait to talk about the past until we have some privacy.” Tai gestured at the dissipating crowd around them and the airport itself. 

“Sure, sure.” Yang hummed. “Show us where your car is?” She hefted her bag and Ruby’s. They weren’t heavy by any means, they just had a few changes of clothes and their weapon maintenance kits in them. Ruby had said that they’d probably run into some grimm around her house and in the woods nearby.

Yang chatted amicably with Ruby’s parents about Patch as they walked to the parking lot. It turned out that the island was the main source of lumber for Vale, the fact that it was an island limited the number of grimm that were present on the land, though they still somehow appeared there as they did everywhere. All the while, Ruby didn’t say anything, instead just happy to walk while holding Summer’s hand.

Summer Rose’s car turned out to be a beaten up, muddy old white Subaru that could now be described as eggshell, but only on a good day. At least it had a trunk, sitting in a car with her luggage in her lap would be annoying, mostly because it would obstruct Ruby’s ability to be touchy, something that she was begging to appreciate more every time Ruby opened up with her.

“So, is it normal for Ruby to go a while without talking?” Yang directed her question towards the general front of the car, where Summer and Tai were sitting.

“Oh, wait, don’t answer her. I wanna explain it.” Ruby suddenly jumped into action, snapping her seatbelt on excitedly. Then she looked at the seatbelt in confusion. “Why do we even need seatbelts when we have aura?” She shook her head. “What was I going to say?” There was a pause, then she put up a finger and exclaimed just as Yang was about to answer her. “Talking! Right. Mmmm.” She put a finger on her chin and scrunched up her forehead. “I’ll explain later.”

“Okay, sure.” Yang laughed, flabbergasted. “You want to tell me what you were planning on showing me yet in the meantime?”

“Nope. It’s a surprise. To me included!” Ruby smiled innocently.

“So you’re saying we’re just going to wander around the forest fighting whatever grimm we come across until we find something or someone interesting by complete chance?” That sounded like fun.

“Yep. It’s my favorite pastime, other than making stuff.” 

“Nice. I look forward to kicking ass with you tomorrow, miss Rose.” Yang affected an air of joking seriousness.

“And I you, miss Branwen.” Ruby did a surprisingly good imitation of Professor Port, and Yang could practically see the nonexistent mustache on her face twitching.

“Come on, we just left the port behind, don’t bring him with us.” Tai heckled from the passenger seat.

The rest of the fairly short car ride to Ruby’s home was very similar, with Ruby and Yang chatting and joking, while Summer and Tai occasionally added in their own heckles or puns. It felt shockingly natural, and for the second time since she left the clan, Yang felt like she belonged somewhere.

###### Ruby

Yang managed to really hit it off with Ruby’s parents. It was great, Ruby got to spend some time to catch up with the best mom she’d ever had while Yang cooked dinner with Tai. There were just two little things that she didn’t tell Summer about, Weiss’ curse, and what she sort of thought might be feelings for Yang. The former she wasn’t supposed to talk about, and the latter she still felt the need to wait on, partially because Yang was just in the kitchen, which wasn’t even separated from the living room by a door.

“Come and get it!” Yang’s voice rang out brightly from the kitchen, making Ruby smile in anticipation.

“What she said!” Tai followed up with a laugh. “It’s quesadillas.”

As Ruby walked into the kitchen, Yang expertly flipped the last of the quesadillas into the air and caught it in the pan, then tipped it onto a plate. “Anyone would be lucky to have me.” She eyed her work confidently.

“You’re like Rae, but happy.” Summer nodded in approval before turning to Ruby and putting a hand over her mouth to speak in a false whisper. “She’s a good catch.”

“Mooooom.” Ruby just rolled her eyes.

Yang rushed to get everything together, barely managing to balance all four plates loaded with cheesy goodness, though she stayed suspiciously silent. 

Tai raised an eyebrow suspiciously, but satisfied himself with bringing along the pot full of beans and setting the table, not even commenting. 

As they sat down to eat, Summer started subtly interrogating Yang. “So, what are you specializing in at Beacon?”

“I’m dual majoring in respecting women and kicking ass.” Yang cracked her knuckles, then hesitated. "Or was it kicking women and respecting ass?"

“I see that the former still needs work.” Summer laughed as Yang gasped in mock shock.

“I am a perfect gentlewoman. I live my life with nothing but dignity,” Yang flexed her right arm, “and grace,” she flexed her left.

Ruby snorted with laughter, sending beans flying across the table. “The only time you’re graceful is when you’re fighting.”

“Exactly. Sometimes, fighting is just another form of communication, and _I_ am quite verbose.” The bite of quesadilla Yang had been eating dropped from her fork into her lap, as if to accentuate her statement. Her protests were drowned out in the laughter that followed.

Ruby had missed this. Meals with her team were growing more amicable fairly quickly, but they probably weren’t going to be like a family very soon at all. Maybe not at all, although, she really hoped that they would.

Once the meal was over, Yang leaned back in her chair with a heavy sigh of contentment. “Damn, I haven't had an evening like this since I first joined-” she cut herself off with a frown. She pursed her lips, looking around her cautiously, then shook her head. “Since I left the clan.”

“We’ll take care of the dishes, you kids enjoy your weekend.” Summer smirked knowingly at Ruby, who stuck out her tongue in response. She really hoped it wasn’t that obvious.

“So... couch?” Yang looked just as distinctly awkward as Ruby felt.

“Yeah, sure.” Ruby stood up and awkwardly gestured for Yang to go first. This was the second time in her life that she had ever invited anyone to her house.

“So you wanted to tell me about not talking earlier?” Yang casually splayed herself across the soft brown couch in the living room.

“Mmmm.” Ruby sat next to Yang, just close enough that she could feel the slight warmth perpetually radiating from her. “So, my relationship with words is weird. They’re weird, and sometimes using them is more work than usual. Most of the time I just talk anyway because it would be inconvenient to not talk to anyone for a while. But, you’ve been really accepting of me and so I thought that it would be alright to indulge myself with just you and my parents around.” Unconsciously, she leaned against Yang, who wrapped a strong arm around her shoulders.

“Good. I wouldn’t want anyone to do anything but be comfortable around me. If there’s anything else that you would want to do but normally don’t, it's completely okay to do around me.” Yang patted Ruby’s shoulder.

“Okay.” Ruby sighed, relaxing further against Yang. “Thanks. So much. You’re doing an amazing job of being understanding.”

“It is sort of my entire shtick.” Yang chuckled, a sound that reverberated gently through Ruby’s body. “We took in all types into the clan. Everyone needed someone to talk to from time to time, and since I was the cutest person in the clan, it tended to be me.”

“Emphasis on was.” Ruby snickered as Yang looked at her indignantly, feathers ruffled.

“Bitch, I’m adorable. Anyway, as I was saying, I like helping and being there for people, it makes us all stronger. So, feel free to lean on me as much as you want to.” Yang shifted Ruby a little bit closer against her.

“I’ll try.” Ruby hurriedly pulled a blanket over the both of them, mostly to hide an involuntary bodily response to Yang's closeness. “I was going to say we should watch a movie, but now I don’t want to get up, or let you get up.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll get it. You girls enjoy yourselves.” Tai heroically appeared from the sidelines and deposited a plethora of remote controls into Ruby’s lap. “Making an old man like me _couch_ down and pick things off of the floor, really, you should be ashamed of yourself.”

“Boo, get a day job.” Ruby threw one of the remotes with dead batteries at him, and he caught it expertly. 

“You know that I already have a job, I teach, I was teaching you up until a few months ago.” Tai pretended to be wounded, then laughed and made a graceful retreat from the living room, though not without carefully tossing the remote back.

Ruby ended up deciding on Howl’s Moving Castle, a movie that surprised her every time when she actually enjoyed the romance, even though it was straight. She stuck by Yang’s side until late in the night, when they eventually decided to go to sleep, with Yang taking the guest room. Somehow, being around Yang already felt to Ruby like she was around family, maybe because their parents knew each other so well in the old days. It was wonderful.

###### Blake

Should Blake have taken the opportunity to talk with Weiss as soon they had the privacy granted them by Yang and Ruby’s trip to Patch? Yeah, probably. Instead, she had settled herself down at the airport, idly watching the ships pass by while lost in thought. 

She was sure that she liked Weiss, that she admired her strength, and the way that Weiss was putting a great deal of effort into undoing the harmful teachings of her childhood while subtly supporting everyone around her. 

But even then, she was considering avoiding the subject altogether and trying to just have a normal teammate relationship with Weiss. She was afraid, mostly of herself, partially of Adam. The more she thought about Weiss, the more she was reminded of the events of the last three years. Events she had been deliberately trying not to think about, mostly successfully. The time that she spent with him. She didn’t think that she was making another mistake, and she knew that Yang would be there for her if things went sour on either end, but the possibility was more than enough to paralyze her with indecision and fear.

On the bright side, if she wanted to hide from Weiss all weekend she could, thanks to the fact that she didn’t need to sleep. They didn’t necessarily have to see each other again until Monday classes, if she was dedicated enough to forgo showering, something that actually might not be a big deal, considering that she didn’t sweat.

“Hey Blake, Weiss seemed like she was looking for you earlier.” 

Startled, Blake looked up to see Pyrrha and Nora staring at her, the former seemingly concerned, and the latter happily oblivious. “Was she?” She pursed her lips. That could probably be interpreted as a good thing.

“Yes, as much as she tries not to let it show, I think she’s lonely without any teammates to bother her.” Pyrrha’s empathetic green eyes were practically screaming _go talk to her you big dumb idiot_. Or maybe that was just Blake talking to herself.

Blake sighed. It wasn’t like she wasn’t guilty about the fact that she was avoiding this. But she was pretty sure it was justified to take more time. Considering the three year stretch of her life that she wasn’t even starting to look back on and work over yet.

“Why don’t you come to the city with us?” Nora offered a hand to pull Blake off the bench with. “We’re having a girls’ evening out, getting some milkshakes.”

“Evening?” Blake looked at the sky. The sun was indeed setting. She wasn’t actually hungry, despite not having eaten dinner. “Oh. Sugary treats sound nice, actually, yeah.” She didn’t think she’d had a milkshake since before she’d left her parents.

“Great! And then we can talk about romance and go shopping and ohh, if you want to keep hiding from Weiss all night we can have a sleepover and paint each other’s nails!” Nora rubbed her hands together excitedly. Not so oblivious after all.

###### 

The milkshake place that Pyrrha took them to ended up being a very colorfully decorated ice cream parlor, something Blake hadn’t even seen before. Capital cities were probably the only kinds of places that could maintain such specialized businesses.

“One salted caramel milkshake, please.” Pyrrha had regularly had to slow and greet passing strangers as they walked, but once inside the colorfully decorated shop she relaxed a little, and none of the employees treated her abnormally. She must be a regular.

“Chocolate chip cookie dough shake for me.” Nora gave Blake an encouraging pat on the back that forced the air from her lungs as she stepped up to place her order.

“A vanilla milkshake please.” Blake tried to pull out her wallet, but before she could Pyrrha had already claimed the bill for all three of them, so she just grabbed the sign with their order number on it and claimed the inside part of a booth seat. This was a squeezing into small spaces for comfort kind of an evening.

“Vanilla? Really?” Nora looked at Blake with disapproval as she sat across from her.

“Reminds you of someone, doesn’t it?” Pyrrha sat next to Blake at a respectful distance, and Blake wasn’t entirely sure if she was grateful or intimidated.

“Is it that obvious?” Blake hadn’t even realized that she was making a choice of ice cream flavor based on Weiss when she did it, but here she was, anticipating a vanilla milkshake and thinking about the way Weiss smelled.

“Yes.” Nora and Pyrrha said at the same time. “You look like-”

“-Pyrrha thinking about Jaune.” 

“-Nora thinking about Ren.” Nora and Pyrrha shared a surprised look, and all three of them laughed.

“Thank fuck Weiss isn’t as oblivious as those two.” Blake had to work to tone down her laughter, they were starting to get funny looks. “My condolences, by the way.” 

“It’s ironic really, considering that Wiess is the only one of the people one of us is interested in who’s a lesbian.” Pyrrha contemplated.

“I’m Rensexual.” Nora put her elbow on the table and rested her face on her palm and sighed wistfully. 

“At least you guys don’t have any terrible secrets that are holding you back.” Blake mumbled at the table, not even looking up.

“Terrible secrets?” Pyrrha tilted her head.

“Yeah.” Blake swallowed thickly. “The last few years of my life have been pretty messed up. I’ve been trying to just forget about it since I got here, but I really can’t do that anymore. Not if I want to have a chance with Weiss. And I do. I really do.” 

“Alright. That’s it. You are sleeping over with us tonight, and I am kicking Jaune and Ren out.” Nora sternly, almost intimidatingly, pointed at Blake. “And you are going to get this stuff off of your chest, if you feel comfortable.”

Blake managed to chuckle a little bit at the way that Nora was being simultaneously fierce and understanding. “Yeah. Let’s do it.”

A waitress arrived with their milkshakes. Blake smiled graciously as she accepted her vanilla milkshake from Pyrrha, and suddenly wished that she wasn’t wearing her bow. She should be able to flick her ears happily right now damnit. The slump in her shoulders dissipated as soon as she took a sip of the milkshake however, the complex taste of vanilla reminding her of Weiss.

###### 

“Alright Blake, you’re wined and dined, so spill the cabbages.” Nora flopped across the width of her bed and patted the spot next to her expectantly. 

“First of all, you cannot call a milkshake a wining and dining. Secondly, cabbages?” Blake obliged and took a seat, mostly out of confusion.

“You know, like the guy with the cabbage cart that gets destroyed, and he’s all like ‘my cabbages.’” Nora flailed her hands around expressively.

“And if you want to insist on being wined and dined, I’m sure we could arrange something.” Pyrrha winked flirtatiously and sat on the other side of Blake.

“You’re messing with me, right?” Blake’s gaze lingered on Pyrra’s finely muscled bare shoulders for a moment before she looked to Nora for guidance. “She’s messing with me right?” She was too sapphic for this shit. 

“Sure.” Nora said, completely unconvincingly.

“Of course I’m messing with you.” Pyrrha snorted with laughter, though only after letting Blake stare at her in confusion for a long moment.

“You two are almost as bad as Yang.” Blake shook her head. “Thanks.”

“Oh, we haven’t even gotten started.” Nora wrapped Blake in a crushing hug, which Pyrrha quickly joined in on. 

“Gah!” Blake was caught somewhere between a laugh and a shout as her ribcage was slowly crushed between the affections of two incredibly buff women. “Okay, okay, I believe you!”

“Good.” Pyrrha finally let go. “Now, why don’t you tell us about Weiss?”

“I really like her.” Blake closed her eyes, luxuriating in the feeling of just thinking about someone she had romantic feelings for for a moment. “When I first got put on the same team as her I was pretty cautious about being around a Schnee, but she helped me with something important early on, and things just sort of developed from there.”

“Why were you cautious of her?” Pyrrha raised an eyebrow cautiously.

“Oh, right.” Blake hesitated for a moment, then reached up to her head and took off her bow, letting her ears pop free with a sigh. “Don’t tell anyone else yet.”

“That explains so much.” Nora nodded contemplatively. “Mostly all of Yang’s cat jokes.”

“Weiss doesn’t know, huh?” Pyrrha wrapped an arm around Blake’s shoulder. “That sounds like a potential problem.”

“It gets more complicated. What do you know about Menagerie?” Blake leaned into the touch carefully.

“Only that it’s the place set aside for Faunus to live after the Great War. What’s that got to do with it?”

“The leader of Menagerie, it’s Chieftain, is Ghira Belladonna, my father. Meaning that I’m going to be the next Chieftain.” Blake paused to allow for a few exclamations of surprise. “But wait, there’s more. He founded the White Fang, and only retired to live in Menagerie five years ago, meaning that I was raised in the White Fang. Which has been in a metaphorical war with the Schnee Dust Company for as long as Jacques Schnee has been in charge of it.”

“Oof.” Nora winced, and started leaning on Blake too.

“But wait, there’s more.” Blake made depressed jazz hands. “I stayed in the White Fang after my parents left and they started getting actively violent under Sienna Khan’s leadership. It wasn’t until three weeks before the semester started that Yang and I left. Just a little bit before they inexplicably devolved into outright mass robbery. And up until the same time I was dating Adam Taurus, the leader of the Vale branch of the White Fang, and the cherry on top of the whole disastrous fucking cake is that he was abusive and I really don’t know if I should even be getting into a relationship at all right now.” 

“Oh my Necro’lic, you give the word and we _will_ send that asshole to whichever of the seven hells he belongs in.” Pyrrha ground her fist into her palm while tightening her grip on Blake.

“Yeah! We’ll break his fucking legs!” Nora growled.

“You shouldn’t try. I’m pretty sure he could even beat Pyrrha in a duel.” Blake sighed. She caught a faint smell of pomegranates. Her ears flicked contentedly as she let Pyrrha and Nora hold onto her more tightly. “It's the thought that counts though. Thanks.”

“Seriously, we’re here for you.” Pyrrha rubbed Blake’s arm.

“I don’t really think I can talk about details yet, but thanks. Just admitting it is actually more than I’ve done so far. I’m worried, but I think that letting him stop me from doing what I want to do would be a mistake.”

“Yes! You’ve fucking got this girl. And if Weiss mistreats you...” Nora growled protectively.

“You’ll break her legs?” Blake shook her head in amusement.

“Exactly! Now you understand.” Nora nodded enthusiastically. 

“Thanks, I’d rather talk about something else now though. I’m going to need to tell Weiss the details soon enough.” 

“It’s still girls’ night though, so now lets watch a fucking stupid romantic comedy and get so absolutely fucking wasted on sugar that we sleep in until noon.” Nora clapped enthusiastically.

“Hell yeah!” Blake was reasonably sure that she wouldn’t even feel the effects of a sugar crash, so she felt absolutely no guilt about a plan like that at all. 

Pyrrha sneezed agreeably.

“Bless you.”

“She’s already blessed with that incredibly fine ass.” Nora laughed raucously at her own comment.

“Thanks?” Pyrrha stared at Nora for a moment, then shook her head. “This means I get second choice of movie, after Blake.”

“Deal.”

###### Taiyang

Tai collapsed into bed. Meeting Yang was an experience. He liked her, really, he did. It was pretty obvious that Ruby liked her too, and that was more than enough for him to approve of Yang. But of course, she also reminded him of Raven, and all the associated baggage. Obviously, it would be unfair to treat her differently because of that, but it didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to mope in his free time.

“Tai.” Summer sat next to Tai and started rubbing his back gently. “What are we going to tell them about Rae? Yang’s probably going to ask.”

With a groan, Tai managed to roll over. “Well that’s the easy part at least. We can just tell them the truth. That we don’t know who Yang’s father is. That she left after she gave birth, and we have had any contact with her since. And then, you know, all the stuff about what went wrong with the four of us, except for the silver eyes.”

“I still don’t see how Raven could have cheated on you. Yang even has hair that’s so much like yours, even if it is reasonably impossible that you’re her father.” Summer sighed. “The more I think about it, the more I regret not talking some sense into you. It was so selfish of me. We should have waited and talked things out, not sent her away.”

“It’s not your fault, you know that.” Tai wrapped his arms around Summer’s shoulders from behind. “I can’t believe I even thought about getting rid of her like that.” Entirely new and familiar guilt flooded him.

“We can’t keep Ozpin’s secrets from them forever either.” Summer slid back into Tai’s lap. “Gods, why did she have to be born with silver eyes.” This time-worn path again.

“Maybe it is time, for that at least. She’s at Beacon, it should be safe, even if someone sees her using them.” 

“You’re right. I can’t let her figure it out the way I did.” Summer nodded as determination creeped back into her voice. “And she has friends now, finally. And Yang. I’m so proud of her.” 

“She has everything she needs to do it, finally.” Tai smiled sadly. He started gently rubbing Summer’s shoulders. “And she’s going to be the best huntress we’ve ever seen, I really think she is.”

“I just hope that you’re right about not being Yang’s father. Otherwise Ruby’s heart is going to be broken, all over again.” Summer sighed, and relaxed into the massage.

###### Weiss

Being avoided by Blake was a troubling matter. Beyond Weiss’ immediate desire to finally bring their situation to a conclusion of some kind, without a single other person around in the team RWBY dorm it felt empty, as if Weiss had already gotten used to Yang or Ruby’s nearly perpetually bothersome presence. Certainly, it was preferable to the deathly silence of the Schnee manor. Not that she would ever admit to such a thing. 

Saturday morning, Winter finally arrived in Vale. Weiss met with her as soon as possible at a pavilion in Beacon’s gardens. 

“Winter!” Weiss greeted her sister enthusiastically as she approached. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Would that we were not meeting under these circumstances.” Winter nodded somberly. “But yes, it is good to see you as well, Weiss. How goes your education?”

“As well as can be expected, under the circumstances. I have been pleasantly challenged in a number of ways, and learned a great deal already.” Most of the challenge had come from learning to get along with her Faunus teammates and entering classes which demanded skills she had no experience with, such as wilderness survival, but Weiss felt it prudent not to mention the internal conflicts of her team.

“And how badly has the cuckoo situation escalated?” Winter posed the question as gently as she could.

“I am myself far more often than I am not, and there has been no damage caused by the situation yet, largely because I have revealed it to my teammates.” Weiss hesitated. “I would appreciate a hug.”

“My, you have changed already.” Winter smiled, and held open her arms. “I approve.”

For a brief moment Weiss was briefly reminded of how jealous she was that Winter was the tall sibling, but those concerns briefly faded in their close hug. It really was odd just how much she had been hugging people lately. There was something subtle that she disliked about it despite it being an overall positive experience, but she couldn’t seem to figure out what.

“Now,” Winter gestured for Weiss to take a seat beside her, “in dealing with the cuckoo, I have found two questions to be the essence of survival. I believe I may be able to guide you to the answer of one, but the other you will have no choice but to discover for yourself.”

“What are they?”

“Who are you? What do you want?” 

“Ah. Professor Goodwitch asked me that as well, actually.” Weiss nodded. “I do know the answer to the latter question at least.”

“Do you?”

“Of course, what I want has been the same for quite a while. I want to remove father from his position and restore the SDC and the Schnee family name to their former glory.” 

“That is not the answer you need. It is not a matter of what your objectives are, though they are important to keep in mind. You must look deeper, consider why it is that you want to achieve that goal, the core of what motivates your entire being.” 

“What motivates me in everything? That is a difficult question.” Weiss scrunched her forehead in thought.

“Think! What is it that you intend to do? Who does it affect, and how? Why do you desire these changes? What else do you desire? What is the source of the passion buried deep within you?” 

“I intend to deliver justice to the workers the SDC has wronged, and to end their callous treatment.”

“Is that all that you want? If you were given control of a kingdom, without limits, how would you change it?” Winter’s sharp gaze bored into Weiss intensely.

“I would do everything in my power to ensure justice and fair treatment. No human or Faunus would be treated as lesser or as a disposable asset for the benefit of others.” 

“But why is it that you want such a world? What do you get out of it? Surely you aren’t motivated by the pure desire to help others?”

“Because I give a damn about others! I care, and I intend to do everything I can to prevent them from being exploited the way I was! To make sure my father and anyone like him never exploits another life like he exploited mine!” Weiss’ mouth hardened into a tight line. “I refuse to go gently into an endless winter night. What’s been done can’t be undone, but I can make sure it doesn’t happen again, that sick pieces of shit like him can’t hurt anyone else.”

“Now that is an answer.” Winter nodded approvingly. “Now what are you going to do with it?”

“Do with it?”

“In my experience,” Winter smiled coyly, “righteous fury is an excellent motivator. Now that you’ve found it, what will you direct it towards?””

“Firstly, overcoming the curse.” Weiss’ mind was rushing, considering the future with newfound determination. “From there, the next step is to become a hunter, and given that he will likely remove me from my position as heir when he discovers that I have done so, graduate, then prove him guilty of whatever crimes he has committed.” 

“Good. As to who you are, that is something I am sure you have been considering since you arrived here.”

“I’ve been trying. It feels like I’ve barely made any progress though.” Weiss sighed. “I still think about the things he’s taught me sometimes, the insane, paranoid, abusive shit. I don’t follow it, but it has been bringing me to inaction on occasion.”

“Discovering yourself is a difficult process. All I can do is advise that you trust those around you as much as possible. Teams are an excellent resource.” Winter smiled, lost in a memory.

Winter stayed for much of the day, and they spoke of less vital matters, though Weiss couldn’t seem to find any real sense of self. Nothing truly seemed to satisfy her as being internally motivated. It was a strange question, who she was.


	15. Families of Four

###### Weiss

“Who am I?” Weiss mulled over the question as she fiddled with a pair of smooth stones, rotating them over and over in her right hand. She had wandered across a small rock garden hidden in the hedges shortly after sending Winter off for the day, believing that she needed to think independently for a time. The repetitive motion was soothing in a way, though it did little to bring her to answers.

Yet the more that she thought the less she knew. It was strange to think of herself in relation to others. She had romantic interest in Blake, yet at the same time the thought of being her girlfriend was distinctly uncomfortable. It brought similar moments to mind. The revulsion that had appeared when Ruby had called Weiss a cute girl. The utterly foreign nature of the idea of being comfortable with her own body accentuated to her by Ruby’s embracement of her artificial arm. 

The soft sound of footsteps displacing gravel pulled Weiss out of her reminiscence. From around a corner, Ren walked into the rock garden, their eyes widening in slight surprise as they saw Weiss.

“What brings you to my humble sanctuary?” Ren calmly took a seat in the center of the rock garden, somehow not disturbing any of the rocks themselves, though their eyes never left Weiss.

“Just wandering. Wandering and wondering.” Weiss didn’t stop rotating the stones in her hand. “Am I welcome here?” Ren was quite an enigma to Weiss. She was reasonably sure that she had not spoken to them at all, which was even less than she had interacted with the rest of team JNPR. After all, she had not come here to make friends, and any fraternization was simply a circumstantial occurrence.

“Of course. It’s a public area. I just like to come here to meditate.” Ren settled down. “What are you wondering about?”

“Myself.” Weiss let the stones in her hand drop to the ground with a muted clatter. They were getting her nowhere. 

“Gender is a fuck.” Ren said, nodding wisely.

“What?” Weiss was reasonably sure that she had never heard Ren curse before, and absolutely certain that she had no idea what they were talking about.

“I’ve noticed in the past that you have a tendency to become cross with anyone who calls you by a gendered term, so I assumed that there was something happening in that regard. Sorry.” Ren bowed their head slightly.

Weiss stared at Ren, taking a long moment to consider their statement. “You are not wrong that such things irritate me. Are you saying that you have a hypothesis as to the reason behind this?”

“Seems like a gender thing to me.” 

“What is that supposed to mean?” Weiss raised an eyebrow.

“As in: a not cis thing.”

“Cis?”

“Oh, okay. I see how it is.” Ren nodded sympathetically. “Someone who’s cis identifies with the gender they were assigned at birth.”

“Are you implying that it is possible to not be cis?” Weiss had very little idea what was going on here, but it sounded interesting.

Ren gestured to themself. “ _No_. I was assigned nonbinary at birth.” They rolled their eyes. “If you have no idea what I’m talking about, how is it that you haven’t misgendered me?”

“I was actually just going along with everyone else because I had no idea what was going on. We also haven’t really spoken. At all. We’re barely ever in the same room. And what does this have to do with me?” 

“Do you enjoy being a woman?”

“Of course not.”

“Yeah, cis people pretty much don’t say that. You’re supposed to like your gender.”

Weiss sat among the stones, briefly surprised by how comfortable they were. “Tell me more.”

###### Yang

“What was my mom like at Beacon?” Yang sputtered out in Summer’s general direction between mouthfuls of french toast. 

“Rae was the most stubborn, violent, sarcastic, selfish, and righteous woman I’ve ever known.” Summer picked up the syrup with a wistful look towards Yang. “We first met before we even became partners, when some of the other initiates were harassing me for being a Faunus. She barely didn’t stab them, and after that I started following her around like a lost puppy.”

“Was? You say that like you don’t talk anymore.” Yang wasn’t sure what she had expected her mother to do with the teammates she had left behind, but sure they were still in contact to some degree.

“We haven't talked since she left and team STRQ finished falling apart, just after you were born.” Summer sighed as a pained expression flashed across her face. “The night that she left I made the biggest mistake of my life, and I lost my best friend.”

“It was your fault that she left?” Yang recoiled slightly. 

“Yes.” Summer said, at exactly the same time that Tai emphatically shook his head and said “no.”

“Honey,” Tai shot Summer a pained look of his own, “it’s not your fault. We all screwed up. Except Qrow, for once.” A rush of air left his nose in silent, bitter amusement.

“What exactly was it that happened between the four of you? Why did my mom leave team STRQ?” 

“It wasn’t just one thing.” Summer sighed. “We were the best team in our class when we graduated, and Ozpin’s favourites. A lot of teams don’t stay together the way we did, and we felt invincible. We threw ourselves into being hunters, and ended up kicking more ass than a centinel with human legs. It was mission after mission, day after day, helping as many people as we could. We barely took breaks, and we were such a tight knit group that we managed to convince ourselves that all we needed was each other. I made everyone keep going and going until one day, this happened.” She touched her eyepatch, and Ruby gasped from the seat next to Yang.

“Sometimes, Oz would give us special missions, missions that weren’t public record. Black ops. He... isn’t very open with his secrets, and sometimes he didn’t tell us what we were really getting into, even though it was always for the better in the end. Up until it wasn’t. When that happened we were forced to stop for a while while I healed. Everything jerked to a stop and we all took a good look at ourselves. Some of us realized that we had feelings for each other and then acted on them.” For a brief moment, Summer looked ashamed, but she powered through, determined to finish her story.

“After a while, we got back to taking missions. But Oz stopped assigning them to us, we were out of his inner circle. Once I lost my eye, he just... stopped telling me things. Sometimes Rae or Qrow would still get called away to do things they never told the rest of us about. That was around when Qrow’s drinking habit really started to get bad. We all settled down a little bit, got older and wiser. But not old and wise enough.” 

“When Rae found out she was pregnant, she was so happy. We were all there for her and we all did everything we could to help. We had all picked up at least a little bit of a drinking habit, it’s hard not to when you’re a full time hunter. Qrow worked so hard to help her stay sober through it all that he almost managed to go sober too. A little bit later we found out that I was pregnant with Ruby. It was wonderful in its own way, and for a while it looked like we were all going to be one big family.”

“But...” Summer trailed off, looking to Yang with a concerned expression. “How good of a mother has Rae been to you?”

“She’s wonderful.” Yang was aghast at the slightest suggestion tha Raven would be a bad mother. “She’s been incredibly loving, protective, and she’s taught me a lot. She would do anything to keep me safe.”

“But she probably treats people who aren’t part of her family differently, doesn’t she? She doesn’t trust outsiders, or get along with them?”

“Well, yeah. But that’s just how it is when you’re a bandit, isn’t it?”

“She’s always had a lot of... issues. And Qrow. Honestly, they haven’t told us much, and we don’t dare to ask them, but we know that the two of them killed their father and ran away from home at a young age. And that they had good reason for doing so.” Summer flinched sympathetically at the thought, and Yang agreed. Raven had never even mentioned her family beyond Qrow, and she immediately understood why. “Things started to get rough between the four of us as we started spending less time in life or death situations. Shortly after Yang was born, we had a bad fight. A really bad fight. She left, and we haven’t seen each other since.” Ever so slightly, Summer slumped in her chair.

“Mom.” Ruby adopted a stern expression not too different from the one she used when she recognised that Weiss was blaming herself for something. “Whatever you said to each other, Raven doesn’t hate you. I talked to her, and she could tell I was your daughter, and she seemed afraid of your opinion of her more than anything else. I think that you should try to talk to her.”

“Oh, I’d like to. And if I ever get the chance, I will. But...” Summer raised a finger and booped Ruby’s nose, “ _you_ are the most important young woman in my life right now, and I won’t go off on any quest to search for my old friend until you’ve graduated. Alright?”

“Oh.” Ruby smiled shyly. “Yeah, right. I didn’t think of that. Well, maybe Yang can tell Raven to visit?”

“She did say that she’d probably use me to get to Vale occasionally from now on, so yeah. Next time I see her I’ll try to convince her to visit you. I don’t know if I can though.” Yang shrugged apologetically at Summer. She really wanted to see them reunited now. That entire history was so much, and for the first time she found herself really wishing that Raven had stayed a huntress.

“I appreciate the spirit.” Summer beamed, and just the slightest hint of Ruby-like excitement shone through in the moment before she returned to eating.

###### Leonardo

_Leo,_

_I grow increasingly tired of your failure. The Branwen clan is the largest source of losses for the Schnee Dust Company in the entire kingdom of Mistral and I expect something to be done about them. If there is no chance in this situation, I may have no choice but to significantly raise dust prices in order for your kingdom to continue to be profitable to me. We both know that this would not be in either of our best interests, would it? Therefore, I have attached to this email a phone number. The man behind it may be able to assist you in cleaning up your mess by silencing the spider. You have one month. No more excuses._

_From the desk of Jacques Schnee_

It had taken a week for Jacques’ mysterious contact to agree to a meeting. Now the man stood before Leo’s desk in the middle of the night, radiating an aura of doom and gloom. If he could have done this any other way, he would have. There was no doubt in his mind that the man he had invited into his own office was a criminal. To deal with criminals it was sometimes necessary to work with criminals however. Yet another painful lesson he had learned as the headmaster of Haven.

“Kuro Kuokana, at your service.” Kuro bowed, though there seemed to be no true meaning behind the gesture. He was a strange man, standing nearly seven feet tall, thin as a dead tree, and surrounded by a constant and otherworldly aura of menace. In contrast to his name, he was as pale as a porcelain doll. His hair was a strange, heavily gelled arrangement of follicles that almost resembled an onion when seen from the side. Everything but his sideburns was cut to a length that allowed it to stick straight out from his head in an almost fluffy arrangement that made his head nearly square as seen from the front.

“According to our mutual acquaintance, you have means of ensuring that a certain kind of operation is not revealed to concerned parties by the spider.” Leo tented his fingers on his desk.

“I’m afraid that you are going to have to be more specific than that, Headmaster. Whether I can or can not accomplish something is quite circumstantial, as skilled as I may appear to be.” Without breaking eye contact, Kuro’s eyes reminded Leo of a dead fish, Kuro took a seat. His shoulders appeared to be perpetually slumped, even when he sat.

“Are you familiar with the Branwen Clan?” Leo found something to be incredibly unsettling about this man. He had done his research, Kuro Kuokana was a known con-man of little influence. Why exactly he was a resource that Jacques Schnee found reliable was a mystery. 

“I’ve heard of them. Fake bandits.” Kuro’s voice was oddly neutral with every word he said, nearly empty.

“There’s nothing fake about them. They’ve survived as long as they can because they have a deal with Lil’ Miss Malachite, the Spider. Every time I try to get together a team of huntsmen to root them out, she informs them of the effort and they pack up camp and move somewhere else.” 

“Oh no, they are quite fake. They kill far too few people to be the real thing. That does not mean that they aren’t more dangerous than the real thing.” Kuro appeared to be completely disinterested in the matter. He picked idly at his fingernails, even while speaking.

“What I need from you is to make sure that Malachite doesn’t inform them this time.” 

“A simple enough task.” Kuro held up a hand and rubbed his thumb, second, and third finger together. “What’s in it for me?”

“What’s your price?” 

Kuro laughed hollowly. “That is a very foolish thing of you to ask. How do you know that I won’t take this as an opportunity to demand a million lien?”

“If you did something so ridiculous I would simply negotiate the price down.” 

“Well, an effort such as this should take about a week to arrange, so I suppose that I can settle for a mere hundred thousand lien.” 

Leo sighed. That was more than he had hoped to pay, but it was worth it to finally remove the most notorious bandits in the kingdom. “Very well. I’ll begin assembling my huntsmen, let me know when Malachite is out of the way.”

###### Yang

Yang stretched lazily, her shirt riding up to show off her abs more than usual as she opened her mouth in a cavernous yawn. They had just finished off the third small pack of beowolves that she and Ruby had come across in their expedition into the forest. In other words, they were thus far having a very nice afternoon jaunt through the sunny woods of Patch. 

It would have been hard to miss the way that Ruby’s eyes lingered as Yang stretched, and she may have stretched out her stretch slightly longer than she would have otherwise in response to that gentle silver gaze.

Watching Ruby fight the Grimm had been a surprising experience. Ruby was a good fighter in sparring matches against people, she wielded her scythe with speed and precision as she flew about the arena with both recoil and her semblance. But against Grimm she tore through everything before her like a whirlwind, unleashing death and destruction even more efficiently than Yang did. It was beautiful, and she was pretty sure that she had recognised that same look of glee in Ruby’s eyes that she herself felt in any given fight, though Ruby hadn’t shown it before now.

“I gotta say, watching you fight people and watching you fight Grimm are two pretty different experiences.” Yang popped the joints in her neck one last time and fell into step next to Ruby. “What’s up with that?”

“I don’t like fighting people. I know I’m going to have to sometimes to be a good huntress, but I really, really don’t want to hurt anyone, ever. For any reason.” Ruby sighed. “For a while when I was growing up I thought that huntresses only fought Grimm. I wish I had been right.”

“Hey,” Yang took hold of Ruby’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly as they walked, “maybe someday we _will_ only ever need to fight Grimm. And until then, maybe fighting doesn’t have to be all that bad. When I’m sparring with someone else I always give it my all, but it’s not because I’m trying to hurt them. If I didn’t do my best it would be disrespectful to all of the sweat and tears my opponent has put in to get as strong as they’ve gotten.”

Ruby hung her head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to disrespect you.”

“No, you’re okay! I’m saying that that’s how I was taught, but I can totally understand why you do what you do. It’s just...” Yang had to pause in thought for a moment, “to me, fighting between people is just another form of communication. I always throw myself in all the way and I can be passionate and a little bit destructive, and it’s really freeing. Trading blows with someone is kinda like having a verbal argument, but you're speaking directly to each other’s hearts. Do you think it would help if you tried looking at it that way?”

“That’s... actually a really cool way of looking at it.” Ruby practically had stars in her eyes as she looked up at Yang. “Maybe you’re right. I think I’ll try to think like that next time I spar with someone.”

“Cool. Just don’t forget who gave you your sound advice when you’re out there winning the Vytal Tournament, okay?” Yang winked, and interlaced her fingers with Ruby’s. 

Ruby blushed as red as her wings. “I’m not that good, geez.” She didn’t separate her hand from Yang’s, and Yang’s heart fluttered in response.

###### Ruby

After dinner that evening, Ruby asked Yang to come with her to her room. She wanted to talk to Yang without the slight possibility of a parent happening to walk by, not because she intended to take some kind of definitive action, but simply because she wanted to have an intimate conversation.

“Mmm.” Ruby rolled around and settled into her own bed for about the tenth time that weekend. She’d really missed it at Beacon, the beds there were way too soft, this one was nice and firm. “Want ta come cuddle?” She beckoned Yang, who raised her eyebrows skeptically, but complied.

“Just cuddle?”

“When I say something you can take it at face value.” Ruby snuggled happily against Yang’s chest. It would be a lie to say that she wasn’t thinking about things other than cuddling, but even she didn’t want to do anything too soon. Partially from the fear of being rejected, partially because she knew that she needed some time to herself to be able to process her emotions and make sure that she wasn’t being foolish, and partially because she just didn’t know what she would even do.

“I do value your face pretty highly.” Yang mused nonsensically.

“Well your face is great too. You have so many... eyes!” 

“But I only have two eyes? Don’t I?” A note of concern creeped into Yang’s voice.

“Yeah, but that’s more than my mom.” Ruby went limp as she realized what she’d said while trying to figure out why she’d even said what she said before. “Okay, I don’t know what I’m saying, I’m just not good at complimenting people.”

“Well, if you like you can express it with touch, since you seem to get that more naturally.” Yang chucked for a moment, then trailed off as she realized that Ruby had gotten suddenly down. “Everything okay?”

“This morning, when my mom mentioned her eye. She’s never talked about it before. Never really even acknowledged it. I... don’t know what to think of that. And if Ozpin stopped giving her special missions just because of that, I’m not sure what to think about him either.” Ruby grabbed a pillow and squeezed it tightly.

“Ozpin... He keeps coming up. I think we can’t trust him. My mom said so, and it seems like she knows more about him than yours does.” 

“But he’s the headmaster. He’s always helping people, teaching them, he can’t be evil.”

“You don’t have to be evil to do bad things. In Mistral, I heard about people who genuinely thought that equality for the Faunus meant that they would be treated the way they treated us before. They didn’t hate us, not exactly. They were just scared, and they really did think it was for the best. But whenever they voted for the people who told them things like that they were still doing a lot of harm for no good reason.”

“That’s... sad.” Ruby pointed nuzzled her head under Yang’s chin. Today had been great, but it was also sort of too much. Between team STRQ’s less fortunate history and spending a lot of time with someone else, she could probably use some rest. “Yang, would you mind leaving early tomorrow?”

“Sure, if you want me to. Why?”

“I just sort of need some time completely by myself to figure stuff out.” 

“Ah.” Yang’s fingers trailed through Ruby’s hair. “Want me to leave you alone now?”

“No. It’s kinda weird. In a sense I can never really spend enough time around people I like, but I also do actually run out of energy for it a bit easily. It can get messy.”

“Why can’t you spend enough time around people?”

“I did a lot of things today. I spent a decent amount of time playing games, listening to music, and we wandered around the forest. Stuff like that and social interaction doesn’t really stick in my memory very well for more than a few days though. What I remember most is facts. I remember what we learned about our moms, and what progress I made on planning out my next tinkering project. That’s sort of why I like making things. When I build something, it’s a permanent physical object, it proves to me that I did something, when everything else like hanging out with friends just fades away so quickly.” 

Yang apparently didn’t know how to respond to that, so she just held Ruby a little bit more closely.

For a while Ruby just let herself relax, mind drifting, and then a fun memory happened to float to the surface. “You wanna hear a fun story about team STRQ?”

“Hell yeah.”

“When Raven and uncle Qrow first found out that Faunus have good night vision they started setting up tripwires in the middle of the night because they wanted to try and get my mom when she woke up and got up to turn on the light. They never got her with them, but dad got tripped up all the time, and it ended up turning into a war between all four of them, but dad was the only one who ever got tripped. That was how they learned that Raven and Qrow both have night vision that’s just as good as mom’s.”

“Hey, what do you mean ‘uncle Qrow’? He’s my uncle, not yours.” Yang teased.

“He’s adopted family. I think dad might have actually adopted him because of one of their shenanigans, don’t remember. But he’s my uncle because he taught me to fight with a scythe.”

“That explains so much.” Yang nodded contemplatively.

“Hey, do you play games much?” Ruby could only spend so long in one place doing one thing when she wasn’t physically tired.

“Nope.”

“Cool, maybe I’ll actually win at a fighting game for once, come on.” Ruby grinned as she pulled herself up and beckoned for Yang to follow to her doom. This was not optional.

###### Blake

Not long after Nora woke from her overnight sugar coma, Blake made her leave of the team JNPR dorm and went to her own in search of Weiss. Weiss was not there however, and when Blake sent a message saying that she was ready to talk, Weiss responded with a message saying that she was now in need of time to think. Blake responded with a simple “valid,” and settled herself down to spend an unknown amount of time alone, reading.

By the time that Weiss came back, Blake had power read her way through four library books, only two of which were smut, and only one of which had involved an emotionally distant heiress with piercing blue eyes. It was an unfortunately difficult character trope to find. It was also well past midnight. 

Weiss muttered something about tomorrow that Blake could barely comprehend before shuffling into the bathroom like a zombie, presumably to prepare for bed. Weiss looked utterly exhausted, as if only just ending hours spent wallowing in anxiety. Blake hoped that whatever it was Weiss had been pondering, there had been someone to help Weiss through it, the way there had been for her.

The night was long and dull. Weiss’ scent grew ever nearer to being intoxicating to Blake as she awaited morning, probably because she had both forgone dinner and practiced using her enhanced semblance in earnest over the course of the week. Still, she remained in control of herself well enough, and was able to concentrate on reading.

When Blake got the sense that Weiss was about to wake up, she started preparing tea, just as had been for nearly four weeks now. It was a comfortable habit that made it easier to think as her body automatically went through the simple motions. She... looked forward to seeing the expression of Weiss’ face upon being greeted with a cup of tea. It was something that was almost disconcertingly open and grateful, probably because of the significant difficulty with which Weiss awoke every morning.

“Hey you, you’re finally awake.” Blake carefully handed Weiss a cup of tea. A moment after saying it she chuckled, realizing that it was exactly how she had greeted Weiss upon waking after the first time she fed.

“Thank you.” There was a pause as Weiss drank deeply of the tea. “There are quite a few matters to be discussed.”

“There are.” Blake nodded. She could only hope that Weiss felt the same way that she did, and that Weiss would be able to accept her past.

“What I am about to reveal has come to my attention and understanding only through a great deal of effort. I have difficulty expressing it even now, and I expect the same utmost effort and understanding that you have demanded of me in matters of the Faunus.” Weiss’ lips curled into a tight line as the cup of tea was raised once again.

“I understand.” Blake took her own cup of tea and sat back, prepared to listen attentively to whatever Weiss had to say.

Weiss’ mouth opened and moved wordlessly, then closed again. Another sip of tea was followed by another attempt at speech. “I... am genderqueer. My pronouns are xe/xyr.” The teacup subtly trembled in h-in xyr grip.

“Do you still want to be called Weiss?” Blake started deliberately attempting to engrain the new pronouns in her thought process.

“That is my name, yes. I expect that it will remain as such.” Weiss nodded curtly, and stared at Blake cautiously. “Is that your entire reaction?”

“I’m glad that you’ve been able to figure this out and that you’ve decided to trust me with it.” Blake smiled, and put aside her tea. “And... this does nothing to change my feelings towards you.”

Weiss’ breath hitched. “Which are?”

“I like you. Romantically.” Blake was reasonably sure that she managed to keep her voice from wavering. “I’ve seen the way that you go out of your way to learn, help others, and be a better person, even when you’re outwardly cold and still struggling with your own issues. I admire that, and I want to get to know you better, be able to get closer, care about you.”

Weiss clutched at xyr blankets frantically for a moment before throwing them to the side and sitting up, xyr face only inches away from Blake’s. “I feel similarly. Your presence has been a positive one in my life. I take great comfort in your presence, and the patience and understanding you have shown me have been great boons, for which I am grateful.” Xyr hand slowly reached up, gently cupping Blake’s face as gold eyes met blue. 

The scent of Weiss in Blake’s nose was growing even more intense with every breath she took. She followed where xyr hand led her, into a long kiss. Weiss’ lips were warm and strong against hers, flooding her head with vanilla as she wrapped her arms around xyr shoulders. When they separated, xe wrapped xyr arms around Blake in turn and gently tugged her down into bed with xem.

“I don’t suppose that you already need a snack?” Weiss smirked and bore xyr neck seductively.

“It just so happens that I do.” Blake snuggled in and lay flush against Weiss, making a trail of kisses along xyr jawline as she made for the neck. 

One of Weiss’ sweet moans graced Blake’s ears as she lovingly trailed her tongue along the line of xyr vein. At some point she had begun to really appreciate those moans, it made her want to coax out more, in contexts other than that of feeding. By the smallest of margins, she managed to control herself enough to refrain from sinking her fangs into Weiss at that instant. Instead she laid down another kiss, this one closer to xyr jaw. 

A careful application of suction coaxed another moan out of Weiss as Blake marked the skin of xyr neck with a hickey. The taste of skin was wonderful as she swirled her tongue around, eliciting Weiss to pull her head against xyr neck more forcefully.

“Fucking bite me already. Take my blood.” Weiss growled. Xe grabbed onto Blake’s hair and twisted, pushing her into xyr neck more forcefully.

Blake obeyed, finally letting her fangs slide free and plunge into Weiss’ neck. Xyr blood tasted better than it ever had before, its sharp, sweet flavor clouding Blake’s head as she drank. When she pulled away, Weiss’ hand stayed in her hair, though now it was gentle, affectionate. For a moment her mind drifted in a haze of blood, then she realized exactly what Weiss’ hand was close to touching from its position.

“Wait!” Blake removed Weiss’ hand from her head as she realized the risk that her ears could be discovered in a sudden panic, though she couldn’t bring herself to stop cuddling. “There’s something that I need to tell you, and I should have before we did any of this and I’m sorry I got way too caught up in things and-” The sound of something heavy hitting the floor stopped Blake in the middle of her ramble and she whipped her head around in surprise.

There, in the open doorway, stood Yang, with a shocked look on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes, I know I'm evil. Enjoy your cliffhanger


	16. The Stray

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> double whammy today because today is the last day before college classes start up again.

###### Yang

“What the hell!” Yang stared at the closely entwined forms of her best friend and Weiss Schnee. There was no way that this was platonic, hell the expression on Weiss’ face the moment Yang had walked in looked a lot like someone bathing in afterglow. Blake’s terrified reaction all but confirmed her suspicions. “How the fuck are you involved with Weiss! Does she even know who you are? What you are?” How could her best friend just go behind her back and get in a relationship with a Schnee who didn’t even know she was a Faunus?

“Firstly, I now use xe/xyr pronouns. Secondly, of course I am aware that Blake is a vampire, what do you think we were just doing?” Weiss began to separate xyrself from Blake, who shot a terrified glance at xem as the words came out of xyr mouth.

“Vampire?” Yang’s anger turned to confusion in an instant as she got a good look at Blake’s head, seeing that her bow was still in place. “I meant about...”

Weiss followed Yang’s gaze before she could correct her mistake, xyr eyes widening as xe realized what she was looking at. Xe gasped. “If I remove that bow, will I find animal ears of some kind?” Xyr voice dripped with hurt and confusion.

Slowly, Blake nodded, her gaze suddenly stuck to the floor. “I was just about to tell you. Really.”

“But that isn’t everything, is it?” Weiss suddenly jumped away from Blake and backed into the corner of the room, brandishing Myrtenaster. “Brothers, you two were White Fang weren’t you?” As xe spoke, xyr voice grew increasingly distraught. “With such unscrupulous backgrounds, it only makes sense. And why not the criminal organization that attracts Faunus exclusivley? You’ve both said such grandiose things about interracial peace, but you’re only here to assassinate me aren’t you! Or to fulfill some other kind of malicious purpose in your war against humanity!”

“Don’t be a fucking idiot. We ran away from the White Fang! We’re just here because we’re trying to do something that lets us help others! And if we wanted to kill you we could have already. So just calm down.” Yang put her hands out placatingly. It probably didn’t help that much, given that she perpetually wore Ember Celica these days. 

Blake didn’t move.

“Calm down!? Do you people have any idea what you’ve done to me?” Myrternaster trembled. “The White Fang have hounded the Schnee Dust Company for as long as I can remember! Every single stolen dust shipment, every workers’ strike, all of it was lost profit to my father, and what do you think that he _did_ when he lost profit? Repress everything until he dies like a healthy adult? He took it out on the rest of us in that miserable manor!” Weiss screamed, and dropped xyr rapier.

“Can I just interrupt real quick and say that repressing everything until you die is not a healthy coping mechanism? Also, I’m really sorry that that happened to you, but it’s not the fault of anyone in the White Fang that Jacques Schnee is a shitty person. Besides, if it weren’t for people like him the White Fang wouldn’t need to exist in the first place.”

“So it’s my fault that White Fang hurt me now, is it? I am a victim! Blake! Answer me! How could you do this?” Xe remained backed into the corner of the room, shouting accusations at Blake. “Just when I was starting to trust you! You lied to me!” Xe slid down onto the ground, face still contorted with anger. “I hate you.”

Blake still didn’t react.

“Oh man.” Yang sighed. She stepped forward and put a hand on Blake’s shoulder, but just as she expected, the hand simply passed through the image, which faded to smoke. “She already left. Probably a while ago.”

“Fine. Let her go. Good riddance.” Weiss picked up Myrtenaster and put it back in it’s sheath, then stood back up. “I hope that she starves without my blood.”

“I’m not letting her go. And you shouldn’t either. Whatever was happening between the two of you that I walked in on, I’m not going to try to stop you. And if you break her heart now, after everything that she’s had to deal with lately, I will break your spine myself.” Yang glared down at Weiss, pretty pissed that xe had scared Blake off with petty whining about the White Fang. Sure the organization as a whole had its problems, but she still didn’t really consider there to be anything wrong with the more controlled violence they employed in the other three kingdoms. Under normal circumstances it was all just destruction of corporate property and theft from businesses like the SDC. The main problem with Vale was Adam.

“As if you could.” Weiss scoffed.

“Fine, you can do whatever you want, but first I need to know about what exactly is going on with this vampire thing.” 

“She is a vampire. Not much else to explain. Based on the timing, I expect that it happened to her right before you left the White Fang.” Weiss shrugged, and left the room, callous attitude never fading. Unsettlingly, Yang got the impression that it wasn’t just xyr curse acting up.

Oh. That explained so much. Like why exactly Blake had been catalysed to leave so suddenly. Fuck. Adam must have done that to her against her will. Wait, did that mean that Adam was a vampire too? And that he could therefore be even older than the twenty-three year old everyone thought that he was? That was way too fucked up, and Yang had to deliberately focus on something else. She needed to go get Blake and tell her that she was okay. Maybe she was still on campus. Hopefully.

With a glance, Yang saw that Blake had left her scroll on the nightstand. That was a bad sign. She needed to get out there and search, if she couldn’t find Blake on campus, she would probably need to call Ruby and have her come back so they could search the town.

###### Blake

“Hey, you’re a vampire, aren’t you? Like, the fun kind.” A voice popped up from right behind Blake as she walked across the roof of some business near Vale’s docks.

“What?” Blake slowly turned her head around, mustering the best death glare that she could through the utter confusion elicited by someone just straight out recognising her as a vampire for no apparent reason.

From seemingly nowhere a blonde Faunus with a monkey tail had somehow managed to sneak up on her. He casually used his tail to take a bite out of a banana. “Y’know, the sexy kind of vampire. As opposed to the murderous kind or the extra murderous kind.”

“The fuck are you talking about?” Blake was a pretty decent liar, mostly by necessity. She channeled her surprise into pretending to have no idea what this guy was talking about.

“Okay, you don’t want to just admit it to strangers. I can get that, probably goes along with why you’re hiding under that bow, so I’ll go ahead and take the first step.” He extended a hand, grinning like an idiot. “I’m Sun Wukong, _the_ Sun Wukong.”

“Am I supposed to know who Sun Wukong is?” Blake eyed the outstretched hand warily, not even slightly tempted to take it.

“Awww, man.” Sun hung his head dramatically, even as his tail flopped around happily with its banana. “More people forget about me every time I die. Stupid Necro’lic, by the time I get back from the dead people just think I’m some myth.”

“Necro’lic?” Blake had heard that name before, Pyrrha had invoked it when she offered to murder Adam. “Is that some god of the dead or something? What does that have to do with you?”

“Actually, he’s the god of the afterlife, and he’s a total diiiiick. Not in a good way, either.” Sun winked suggestively. “Every time I die, usually of old age, I go to the afterlife and get through some incredibly dangerous hero’s challenge that I don’t actually know anything about because my memories get wiped when I inevitably succeed and come back to life. Thing is, the afterlife doesn’t have linear time, so I totally _could_ get reborn whenever I want to, but no, either I keep getting pushed back because of destiny or something, or the gods are just rude and decide to wait until an amount of time equal to what it took for me to escape.” 

“Are you telling me that the gods are literally real?”

“Wow, you must be pretty new to all this if you’re just now figuring that out, huh?” Sun tilted his head curiously.

“I guess I shouldn’t be all that surprised, considering that I’m a vampire.” Blake sighed.

“You really shouldn’t. Anyway, I’m guessing you’re going to Beacon, since you’re armed while out on the town?” Sun paused as if he expected a response, but he didn’t get one. “That’s cool, I just got off of this ship I was stowing away on. I’m here from Haven for the Vytal Festival. What are you doing out here?”

Blake eyed Sun warily. The only reason she hadn’t told him to get lost was because of the general principle by which she appreciated a hot-headed blond with a six pack. And possibly because he kept revealing incredibly interesting information about the supernatural. And possibly because she was lonely after running away the moment that Weiss deduced she was in the White Fang.

“You know, you do a really good impression of a cat that thinks it’s too good to let a human pet it.” Sun yelped lightheartedly as Blake drew her sword and pressed it against his neck.

“No cat jokes.” Blake got the distinct impression that she wasn’t actually a danger to Sun, even as she threatened him at swordpoint. Presumably because he had lived through multiple lifetimes.

“Oof, edgy cat vampire? Fun.” Sun smirked as he learned what kind of ears Blake had hidden under her bow.

“Look, I’m not in the mood for whatever you’re doing, talking to me.” Blake sighed, and sheathed Gambol Shroud. “Just leave me alone.”

“Sorry Kitty-Kat, but you obviously need some help, and Sun Wukong is always there to help, whether people ask for it or not. So I think I’ll stick around.” Sun winked, then ducked, barely avoiding the sickle that Blake threw at his head.

“What did I say about cat jokes?” Blake glared as she deftly caught her weapon on its backswing and put away once again.

“That wasn’t a joke, it was a nickname. Tell me your real name and I’ll use it.” Sun shrugged, utterly unfazed by the attack.

“It’s Blake.” Blake shook her head. This idiot was annoying, but the most annoying part was that for some reason she was actually enjoying talking to him.

“There ya go, that wasn’t so hard now, was it?” Sun smiled and patted Blake on the back nearly as hard as Yang would. 

“Whatever, if you’re going to follow me around until I stop being depressed, you’ve got a pretty long walk ahead of you.” Blake started walking away, not bothering to look in Sun’s direction.

“Okay, you want an apple then? I stole a bunch of em earlier.” There was a distinct sound that was probably apples falling out of someone’s pockets and hitting a hard surface. “Whoops.”

“Are you a clown?” Blake still didn’t bother looking back at Sun.

“No, don’t be silly. The deftness of my hands is legendary, apples are just the worst possible shape for secure pocket storage. I’m a heroic trickster, read my Wikipedia page, I wrote it myself.” There was a crunch, probably Sun biting into an apple.

“Oh, I’m _sure_ it’s accurate then.” Blake rolled her eyes.

“Exactly.” Sun’s voice was completely innocent.

Blake cracked a smile, and was incredibly grateful that she had her back to Sun.

###### Excerpts From Sun Wukong’s Wikipedia Page

**Origins**

Sun Wukong was at first an inconspicuous warrior of no particular repute, hailing from one of the many tribes of Faunus that were once present on Anima. Over the course of the Trade Wars, the first fights between humans and Faunus, which occurred when the Faunus tribes were banned from any kind of trade with Mistral due to suspicions that they caused Grimm to attack the city, he rose to a position of note in the loosely organized Faunus militia. His cunning led to a series of famous victories against better armed and more numerous foes, and eventually the end of the Trade Wars. Afterward, he was offered a position as a chieftain among the tribes, but turned it down in favor of a life of adventure.

Many of these adventures are lost to history, but he is known to have done a great deal of good over the course of his first life, often fighting for just causes and in the defense of the weak.

**Major Accomplishments**

In his second life, Sun Wukong was one of the nine warriors who bravely participated in the slaying of Gorn, the last surviving Vacuan god. It is also suspected that he tricked Lohknor, the Vacuan god of trickery, into suicide, but all memories of their death have been erased from existence, and thus this cannot be confirmed. 

In his third life, he was a major part of the resistance against Salem when she rose in the kingdom of Hvelsieg, heroically producing enough internal chaos that her human worshippers were unable to mobilize offensively in tandem with the Grimm that were under her command. He was caught and executed a scant two months before Salem’s destruction. 

**Powers**

As influential as he is, and despite the notable prowess he has been known to exert in battle, it is believed that Sun Wukong is an ordinary mortal, as far as someone strong enough that they are capable of winning their freedom from death many times over can be said to be mortal. He dies of old age in the same fashion of any other Faunus, and has been defeated at times, often due to an opponent with some kind of overwhelming power, such as an ancient vampire, or Salem herself.

###### Ruby

Ruby tossed and turned in her bed. Not because she was trying to sleep, but because she was trying to think so hard she was giving herself a stomach ache. Emotions were messy, confusing things, and she was almost constantly worried about whether she was making a mistake with them, despite the fact that they were involuntary. 

She liked Yang. A lot. She was so warm, bright, understanding, funny, beautiful. Everything that Ruby told her about herself she just took in stride, with a nod and a smile, or gentle reassurance. There wasn’t any doubt in Ruby’s mind that she was in love. That wasn’t really the problem, not in itself. The problem was her.

It didn’t take very long for Ruby to get attached to people. As a matter of fact there was only one person who she’d gotten attached to before, outside of her family. That hadn’t ended well. She still missed Sophia with her entire heart sometimes, almost enough to cry, even after two years, which she knew probably wasn’t all that long in the scheme of things, but it was still a big portion of her life.

There was no room for her to be cautious, she just felt everything too strongly have any hope of doing so. She hadn’t even understood that about herself before, but now that she did it was almost worse. There was barely even anything she could do about it, to mitigate how she would feel if things went wrong. Meaning that she got to be terrified of something going wrong, especially considering that she had already gotten closer to Yang than she had been with Sophia.

And probably the worst thing of all was that she very much doubted that she was even capable of being in a relationship with someone. It felt almost inevitable that she would screw up at some point and end up down a girlfriend and a friend because she just couldn’t communicate right sometimes. Or because she didn’t have any real idea of what to even do if she got a girlfriend.

Eventually, she had to leave the comfortable familiarity of her room and eat something for lunch. Downstairs, Summer was waiting for her with a familiar look of concern.

“Thinking about Yang?” As it turned out, Summer had already made lunch. Macaroni and cheese, which was graciously offered to Ruby as she returned from her self-imposed exile.

“Yeah.” Ruby sighed heavily as she sat down. “I’m afraid things will go wrong.”

“Ruby, I think you can do it.” Summer’s voice allowed no room for argument. “You didn’t even do anything wrong last time you liked a girl, and you’ve still learned a lot since then.”

“Yeah, I know. She just hated me for who I am.” Ruby put down her fork. It really stung, even after all that time.

“You don’t need to worry about that this time. Yang is a wonderful girl, and if it wasn’t for Tai I might try to steal her away from you myself.” She grinned in a way that meant she was mostly joking. 

“Moooom.” Ruby pouted. She didn't like that joke, mostly because she was sure that her mom was way better than her anyway, and didn’t doubt that she would succeed.

“Alright, how about I make up for that joke by teaching you something?” Summer smiled sadly. “About our eyes.”

“Eyes?” Ruby shoveled food into her mouth. She hadn’t eaten breakfast. “What about them?”

“Silver eyes are special; they're said to be a gift from the God of Light, and we can use them to kill Grimm. Once you’ve eaten, let’s go into the woods and I’ll show you.” 

“That’s awesome!” Ruby stared at her mom for a second before accelerating her eating and flying off in a burst of petals as soon as she was done.

###### 

“Okay, what do I do?” Ruby whispered to her mom as they perched on the branch of a tree, watching an ursa as it stalked around a small clearing, unaware of their presence.

“First, close your eyes. It makes it easier to concentrate.” Ruby closed her eyes. “Now, think about how much you value life, and how the Grimm will destroy it at every opportunity. Think about your desire to protect it, and try to let that desire well up in you until you just can’t contain it anymore. Then open them.”

Ruby thought hard. She remembered when she had had her arm cut off to save her life, and replaced herself in the memory with the image of someone else, and put herself in Qrow’s shoes, seeing three beowolves charge at a young trainee. The desire to keep others safe welled up within her and she embraced it, then opened her eyes. Nothing happened. That was disappointing.

“That was a good try. Most of the time it’s discovered by accident. Hopefully now that I’ve told you about it you’ll be more able to do it when you need to. Still, try to practice if you can, and try to keep it a secret too.” Summer rubbed Ruby’s shoulder reassuringly.

“Couldn’t you show me how to do it?” 

“No.” Summer looked down at the ground. “It got weaker after I lost my eye, and I haven’t been able to do it all since Rae left.” It was so strange to see her almost ashamed of herself when she mentioned Raven, so completely different from the way that she had always been around Ruby before.

“Alright, I guess that’s another reason to make sure that you two make up then.” Ruby wasn’t going to take no for an answer if she ever saw Raven again.

“You might just be able to do it.” Summer smiled hopefully and jumped down to the ground. “Come on, let’s go home.”

Ruby followed close behind, checking her scroll as she did. She’d missed a series of frantic messages from Yang. With each one she read, her eyes grew wider, and as she replied she could hear her mom quickly taking care of a few Grimm that she must have attracted. 

“What’s wrong?” 

“Blake ran away. Weiss figured out that she was in the White Fang and got mad and she ran away. I need to go back to Vale now and look for her. I guess I know what I have to do about Yang now anyway.” Ruby shot a questioning glance at her mom.

“Go ahead.” Summer waved goodbye. “Take care of your friends, and hurry. And good luck with Yang.”

“Thanks mom.” Ruby shot off into the forest to her home with her semblance at full speed, sending a sonic boom behind her as she passed the speed of sound. If only the airship to Vale would travel that fast.

###### Weiss

Weiss had nowhere to go. There was no comfort to be drawn from a library, or a mansion that held only pain, nor anywhere amongst the public, where White Fang members could easily approach xyr at any moment, in the same fashion that xe had been surrounded by them for weeks now. The solitude of the rooftops ended up being a cold comfort, but it was probably the best thing xe was going to find.

That was when the tears came, alone, the only circumstance when it was ever safe to cry. Xe really was just starting to dare think Blake trustworthy. And almost the moment that xe took action, xe just had to discover that she had been a Faunus all along, and was recently a terrorist. Xe curled up into, wrapping xyr arms around xyr legs and burying xyr face between them. It was just like the old days, nothing had changed. There was still no safety, no peace to be found. If it wasn’t one threat, it was another.

Yang was such a bad liar. As if someone as violent as she was would leave an organization like that. Weiss didn’t know why she was here, but there had to be a malicious purpose of some kind, xe would have to tell the headmaster once xe had composed xyrself. Even if it meant the end of xyr presence at Beacon. What was the point of escaping one danger just to fall into the arms of another, much more insidious one. At least things at the Schnee manor were straightforward, xyr and Klien against everyone else. 

“Weiss? Are you up here?” Pyrrha’s voice shocked Weiss into deathly silence. Xe did not want to be found. “Yang told me about what happened.”

Some small expression of pain must have slipped free of Weiss’ body, despite xyr best efforts to the contrary, because the next thing xe knew was that Pyrrha was crouching in front of xyr with a concerned expression. “Go away. Do not look at me, do not talk to me, do not listen to me, do not touch me, do not think about me, do not acknowledge my existence in any way, or I will stab you.”

“No.” Pyrrha sat a respectful distance from Weiss, much as she had before, not saying a word.

Time passed. Eventually Weiss didn’t have the energy to cry anymore. Pyrrha barely moved. “Why are you still here?” Xyr voice was raspy and dry.

“Because you don’t actually want to be alone.”

“Of course I do.” Weiss wanted nothing more than to be alone for the rest of xyr life.

“But you haven’t stabbed me.” Pyrrha’s voice was gentle and patient.

“Yet.”

“Yet.” There was a laugh bubbling just beneath the simple acknowledgement.

“Plus ca change, plus c'est la même chose.” Weiss muttered bitterly. Klien never seemed to leave xyr alone when xe wanted to either, even if xe knew that xe didn’t actually want to be alone.

“What’s that? I don’t speak Atleasian.”

“The more that things change, the more they stay the same. It’s an old expression. Nothing ever changes, not really. I’ve just found a different person to live in fear of.” The dried streaks of tears on Weiss’ face was disgusting. Xe tried not to think about it.

“Do you really think that you need to be afraid of Blake?”

“Of course I do, the White Fang would love to kill me, I am a Schnee.” 

“But Blake left the White Fang.” 

“And I have no reason to believe that.”

“She told me that she did the other night, because she was afraid of telling you, but she wanted to, and she was going to. Maybe Yang just interrupted you both before she could get the chance. Please give her a chance. You should be out there in Vale, looking for her.” Pyrrha inclined her head to Weiss. 

“So... that means that it was my own fault.” Weiss spread across the dirty roof, no longer even bothering to hold xyrself in the fetal position. Xe had delayed Blake’s ability to reveal her secrets by an entire day as xe worked out xyr gender, and had a subsequent panic attack well into the night. Then, when xe had selfishly pulled Blake into a kiss and had her drink xyr blood. She would have been able to say it herself then. “I kept delaying or interrupting Blake. And now she’s disappeared into the city.”

“It’s nobody’s fault, you all just got unlucky.” Pyrrha frowned, and offered a hand to Weiss. “Come on, stand up. Don’t you have work to do?”

“True.” Weiss eyed the hand carefully, and took it. “I have thus far neglected the schoolwork that I assigned to myself over the course of the weekend.”

“I mean going out and finding Blake.” Pyrrha frowned.

“Whether Blake is found or not is irrelevant if I should fail to keep up with my assignments or classes in any way. Furthermore, while I suppose that my judgement that Blake remained in the White Fang was rash, I still require time to consider whether my feelings for her have permanently changed before we meet once again.” Weiss dusted off xyr dress once xe was vertical again, then frowned contemplatively. “I may also require a new wardrobe.” The idea of wearing a suit was one that xe found quite intriguing.

“Fair enough, I guess.” Pyrrha nodded. “Jaune took Ren and Nora out to look for her too, I think it’s time for me to join them.”

“Are you saying that you chose to search for me over searching for Blake?”

“Well,” Pyrrha brought a hand to her chin contemplatively, “it’s not that I consider either one of you to be more important to me. But I thought that you deserved to have someone looking out for you too in all this.”

“I must admit, someone looking out for me is something I haven’t had in quite a long time.” Weiss smiled cautiously. “Thank you. For finding me, and for sticking around.”

“Anytime.” Pyrrha’s smile was radiant as she moved in for a strong hug. Weiss was relieved to relax into her embrace. Xe waited longer than strictly necessary to pull away.


	17. Romance and Reconciliation

###### Ruby

“Alright, we’re going to find Blake and tell her that it’s all okay today, I just know it.” Ruby nodded resolutely as she stepped out of the airport alongside Yang.

“That’s what you said last night the moment you got back and helped the rest of us look for her until the last possible minute.” Yang rolled her eyes, though she still smiled warmly. “We’ll find her when she wants to be found, hopefully that won’t be too long. And hopefully she’ll see us and know we want to find her.” Her voice grew more concerned as she spoke.

“Why don’t we race to try and find her?” Ruby grinned. ‘I won’t use my semblance.”

“Sure, you’re on. And whoever loses has to buy the other ice cream.” Yang grinned back.

“Deal.” Ruby immediately started running down a small side street, followed closely by Yang. They managed to keep about even as they ran forward, until they turned a corner and Yang crashed to a sudden halt and fell over, bringing Ruby to suddenly try and turn herself around.

“Ughhhh.” Yang groaned, she lay spread eagled on the ground over something person shaped. 

“Yang, are you okay?” Ruby gently prodded Yang with her foot.

“I feel like I ran into a brick wall.” Yang rolled to the side and sat up, revealing the inexplicably smiling redheaded girl who was pinned beneath her. Actually, no, Ruby would be smiling if she got pinned under Yang too.

“Salutations!” The girl waved at them without getting up from her position on her back. 

“Um, hello?” Ruby gave the girl a small wave.

“Are you okay?” Yang stood up with a concerned look on her face.

“I’m wonderful, thank you for asking.” The girl continued to lay on the ground.

“Have you seen a black-haired girl with a weapon running around? She’s our teammate and we’re trying to find her.” Ruby decided that she liked this girl, purely because of her ability to hold a conversation in the middle of a public area while lying on the concrete. Also because she was very pretty.

“No, I’m afraid that I haven’t.” The girl thrust her legs into the air and jumped onto her feet for no apparent reason. 

“Oh well, see you later friend.” Ruby waved at Penny and proceeded to drag Yang along behind her, focus switching back to the search for Blake.

“Huh.” Yang tossed a glance back as they rounded a corner. “She was a really... interesting person.”

“Yang.” Ruby gently scolded.

“Don’t get me wrong, I like interesting people.” Yang shrugged.

Suddenly, the girl ran in front of them. “What did you call me?”

“Interesting?” Yang cocked her head in confusion.

“No, you.” The girl pointed at Ruby. “You called me friend. Are we friends?”

Ruby looked to Yang for guidance. Yang just shrugged. “Yeah, sure. I love friends.”

“That’s wonderful! I’ve never had friends before! I’m Penny, what’s your name?” Penny shook Ruby’s hand with violent levels of aplomb.

“I’m Ruby, this is Yang.” Ruby smiled. She was getting big autisic vibes from this girl.

“Hello again friend Ruby!” Penny let go of Ruby’s hand and started repeatedly clapping her hands together in excitement. 

“Could you help us look for our friend? Her name is Blake.” Yang butted in and changed their focus to Blake. 

“If I see her I will inform you immediately!” Penny saluted Yang in a militaristic fashion.

“Here, let’s exchange scroll numbers.” Ruby pulled out her scroll and let Penny read her number off of it.

“Thanks a lot.” Yang shook Penny’s hand as well. “But we really need to keep looking for her now.”

“Alright! I’ll see you later friends!” Penny waved as Ruby and Yang started walking away, and they both waved back.

###### Sun

Sun Wukong was only occasionally a patient man. There was a great deal of anticipation to be found in the process of waiting for an opponent to fall into a carefully laid trap, there was not much fun at all in waiting for a brooding cat Faunus to open up with him a bit. He’d been following Blake around for a day, and while it was fun to explore the city of Vale, (he hadn’t seen it in about a century) he was rather annoyed that vampires didn’t sleep, and thus, neither had he last night. 

“Soooo, as much as I enjoy small talk, care to tell me why you’re running away?” Sun watched as Blake sipped the tea she had ordered, and shook her head. “Alright, how about this.” He pulled his wallet out of his pocket and slid it across the small table between them. “Take my wallet. I mess with you, you’ve got everything you need to screw up my life and frame me for murder, plus all my cash.”

“Keep it.” Blake pushed the wallet back, though at least she seemed to perk up a little bit. “Why do you want to know?”

“Lots of reasons, really. Mostly because I’m just a gossipy old hag, but also because I’m an insufferable meddler.” Sun slipped his wallet back into his pocket and smiled jauntily at Blake. “Is that a yes?”

“I’m in love with Weiss Schnee.” Any other Faunus probably would have done a spit take at that moment, Sun was proud to say that he constrained his response to calmly inhaling half his mug of coffee, then doubling over in a painful coughing fit. 

“Well,” Sun sat back up as if nothing had happened, “I’ve seen my fair share of stories of forbidden love over the lifetimes.” He never got used to them. “Thing is, usually we’re talking about rival organizations trapped in a war defined largely by a lack of trust between two parties who mean well, but make reasonable mistakes. Isn’t Jacques Schnee just... evil?”

“Yeah, pretty much. Weiss isn’t though.” Blake smiled, then winced. “It wasn’t me being a Faunus that freaked xyr out. It was because I used to be in the White Fang.”

“Ohhhhh, yeah, I can see how that would be a problem.” Sun winced. “Those guys are kinda crazy, especially given the way they’ve been acting around here.”

“They aren’t that bad, most of what they’ve started doing in the last few years is justified and restrained. It can’t be them stealing all that dust. It has to be a trick or something, they’re working with Roman Torchwick. He’s a human, Adam would never work with a human.” Blake shook her head, but Sun was pretty sure she didn’t believe what she was saying.

“Adam?” Sun thought that name sounded familiar, but he couldn’t seem to place it.

“Adam Tarus. The leader of the local White Fang cell, the guy who made me a vampire, and... my ex.” Blake immediately drooped.

“Shit, I know him. Well, knew him anyway, didn’t even know he was a vampire before now. The Adam I knew would never get into a relationship with someone less than a tenth of his age.” Sun shook his head. What had happened to Adam?

“Oh gods, he’s that old?” Blake looked like she was on the verge of throwing up. “We started dating when I was fifteen. When I found out he was a vampire I thought he must have still been on the young side, since he was new to the Fang when we met.”

“Yeah, that _sucks_.” Sun forced a grin, but it didn’t really work on either of them. “There is at least one thing I could help you with though.”

“What?”

“On the ship here I overheard some of the sailors talking about an incoming dust shipment that’s going to arrive tonight. It sounds like a good target for whoever it is that’s stealing dust left and right. If you’re not doing anything, we could stakeout the docks, dish out a little vigilante justice.” Sun grinned expectantly at Blake. It would be just like the old days again.

“And then we can prove that it’s not really the White Fang working with Torchwick. And if I’m lucky, I can figure out what the deal with him is.” Blake nodded contemplatively.

“There’s a deal with him?”

“Yeah, I actually thought that I killed him when I got turned, but then he popped back up and tried to kill me, and now he’s supposedly been dealt with by my friend’s mom, but he’s surprisingly not dead from that either. It’s a really weird situation.” Blake shrugged but at least she took another sip of tea.

“Sounds like he probably came back as a ghost then.” Sun tilted his head thoughtfully. “Probably not the kind that’s bent on revenge if someone got him to back off without exorcising him.”

“I really need to stop being surprised that these kinds of things are real. And then that would mean that I did kill him. But if he’s back as a ghost and he’s an infamous criminal anyway does it even matter to me that I killed him?” Blake shook her head as if to clear it. “That’s not important right now, the White Fang is. Can ghosts fight like a normal person?”

“Some of them are solid enough. Really tough to fight back when that happens, considering that weapons are pretty much useless against them.” Sun leaned back in his chair. “If Roman Torchwick is a ghost and he shows up tonight there won’t really be much we can do about him without knowing what kind of ghost he is. It sounds like your friend’s mom must have some sort of influence over him too though, so it might be a good idea to ask her.”

“If I ever actually meet her I will. Their situation is a bit complicated.”

“Good complicated or bad complicated?”

“It’s a good relationship.” Blake smiled excitedly. “Let’s do it. Tonight. Maybe if I end up fighting the Fang that’ll prove to Weiss that I’m not with them anymore.”

###### Blake

“They’re here.” Blake whispered under her breath, jolting Sun out of his light slumber. He joined her behind the elevated ledge she was crouched behind and watched as a bullhead landed below them. 

When the doors opened, a small contingent of people in Grimm masks began to shuffle off, many bearing obvious Faunus traits. Behind them came Roman Torchwick, in the flesh, or ectoplasm. It was the White Fang, working with Torchwick.

“Why?” Blake wanted to close her eyes. This shouldn’t be the White Fang. It was happening, but it still didn’t make any sense. What would lead Adam to do something weird like this?

“Alright you mangy mutts, get to work.” Roman twirled his cane casually. “Like Papa Torchwick always says, if you can’t take it with you, don’t go.”

“That’s the guy?” Sun tilted his head. “He’s a pretty hot twink, even if he is a bit old.”

“Sun, you’re way older than him and this is absolutely not the time for this.” Blake gestured to the group of people who were currently beginning to spread out around the docks. “Let me go in first, back me up if I need it.”

“Back you up with what?” Blake jumped off the ledge they were watching from. “Oh.”

Blake landed on top of a hanging crate with a deliberate clang, taking off her bow as she did so. “Siblings of the White Fang, why are you working with this man? How is stealing all of this dust going to help us be equals with the humans?” The collected Faunus all paused in a moment of surprise.

“Get back to work!” Roman shouted as his associates before turning to face Blake. “You again?” He looked positively indignant. “Do you have any idea how much of a pain in my ass you’ve caused? Alucard will not shut up about you and how you betrayed him. That and how much better he is than me is all he talks about. Have you ever had to listen to that man drone on and on about his idiotic cause and how much he hates humans? It is the single dullest thing I have experienced in my entire life, and if I weren’t already dead I would have died of boredom by now, and it’s all your fault.” It seemed like he cared more about grousing than about actually fighting her.

“Sorry? I didn't mean to kill you, I just sort of lost control.” Blake’s ears flattened against her head in remorse as she completely forgot about her situation.

“No, no, the whole killing me thing is Alucard’s fault, he set us up like that. I’m talking about you abandoning him. That’s the real source of my woes.” Torchwick’s motor mouth continued to run as Sun hopped down from his position and started taking out the White Fang members who were handling crates of dust.

“Why are you just standing there?” Sun whirled his staff around him as he finished taking down a few White Fang and moved on to the next group, knowing full well that he couldn’t do anything about Torchwick. “Both of you, it’s just weird!”

“Well, it’s quite simple really.” Roman tipped his hat. “I was waiting for reinforcements to show up.” Behind him two more bullheads loaded with White Fang members appeared and opened their doors, releasing a large number of armed opponents who charged Blake and Sun. “Anyway, I really must be going. There’s dust to steal, and femboys to-”

Roman was cut off by the sound of a high caliber sniper rifle firing, followed by a slight distortion as a bullet passed through his body. Definitely a ghost, unless it was a semblance. Considering that no aura had been visible, probably the former. 

“Rude.” Roman frowned and turned on his heel without bothering to glance at the person who had shot at him, instead jumping into a bullhead that lingered right behind him and immediately began to rise into the air with a heavy cargo of stolen dust. “Hopefully we won’t meet again, Kitty-Cat.” As he waved triumphantly out of the side of the vehicle, more of them bagan to take off, already loaded with dust and soldiers.

One of the ships suddenly came to a halt as two glowing green swords embedded themselves in its side, propellers flailing uselessly as it’s entire structure groaned in protest. Blake couldn’t tear her eyes away as someone she didn’t recognise used the swords to pull the ship down to the ground like a fish caught on a rod.

“What the hell are they feeding you kids these days?” Roman turned to the pilot of his ship. “Get us out of here!”

Couldn’t he just fly if he wanted to? No, not the time. Blake made herself look away from the fascinating sight of an entire bullhead being destroyed by one cute redhead. Her entire team was there too. Ruby and Yang back to back as they dealt with a small swarm of White Fang, and Weiss was separated from them, forced to fight alone as xe ducked and dodged through a series of attacks.

Blake immediately started running to Weiss, propelling herself over the heads of a few more White Fang with her shadow clones. She wrapped herself around the torso of a Faunus with dog ears and twisted herself, sending them slamming into the ground.

The two of them fought together until the last of the White Fang dissipated, leaving a decent smattering of unconscious bodies scattered about. There was a brief moment of peace in which Blake cautiously turned to look at Weiss. It didn’t matter how xe had known she would be here. Only one thing did.

“You came.” Blake smiled cautiously at Weiss as she sheathed Gambol Shroud. Yang would be snickering right now if she could have heard that.

“I did.” Weiss nodded as xyr eyes flicked to a point just above Blake’s face, and she suddenly realized that she still wasn’t wearing her bow. “Would it be inappropriate to say that they are quite... cute?”

“No, actually. I trust your intentions.” Blake flushed slightly as she pulled out her bow and put it back on her head. Weiss didn’t comment, but xe seemed to be disappointed for a brief moment. “Do you- _could_ you still trust me?” Her voice wavered.

“I am willing to listen to what you have to say.” Weiss kept xyr expression carefully reserved. “Later, in private. I expect a thorough explanation.”

“Thank you. That’s as much as I can ask for.” Blake nodded to Weiss as police and fully licensed hunters started to secure the scene, rounding up the five students present. The redheaded girl had already vanished somewhere at some point.

###### Weiss

Following the fight at the docks, everyone was scolded by Professor Goodwitch, then released them to their dorms. It was a surprisingly lenient move, most likely orchestrated by Ozpin from the shadows. He seemed to be far less strict than Goodwitch.

Weiss hesitated at the entrance to the dorm. “Yang, Ruby, could the two of you make yourselves busy for the rest of the night?” 

“It’s pretty late already.” Ruby yawned. “I need to sleep.”

“We’ll hang out with Jaune and the others.” Yang immediately understood what Weiss was doing. “Come on Ruby, I’ll explain later, but we need to give them some alone time.”

“Thanks Yang.” Blake shot a nervous smile Yang’s way.

“Come.” Weiss walked into the dorm and took a seat on the edge of xyr bed with a gesture to Blake to sit across from xyr.

This was a moment that xe had worried over for most of the last thirty-six hours. Fear, worry, hope, it was all a mess. Xe desperately wanted Blake to be able to justify her past. Xe wanted to be able to trust her again.

“Where should I begin?” Blake hung her head as she sat. After a moment of moping and a brief glance towards the closed door, she took off her bow once again.

“What exactly have you done while you were in the White Fang?” Weiss needed to know exactly what part Blake had played in the terrorist operation.

“Industrial sabotage, stealing essentials like food and medical supplies, occasional arson, nothing that hurt people. Only matters of survival and careful action against businesses that discriminate against Faunus.” 

“I believe that I can accept that.” Weiss’ left hand shook, and xe realized that xe was still afraid. Xe pressed xyr hand to xyr leg forcefully, stilling it. “Why? Why did you join them in the first place?”

“My parents founded the White Fang. I’ve traveled with them and helped the cause for my entire life. They retired to Menagerie when I was thirteen and I ran away to stay with the White Fang. I thought that I was staying to fight for justice, and that they were running away. We haven’t talked since.” Blake looked ashamed of herself. “It wasn’t until they retired and let Sienna Khan become the Grand High Leader that they became the White Fang you know now.”

“I see.” Weiss looked at xyr hand. It was stilled. “And when you left, it was incited by someone making you a vampire and setting you up to kill someone, yes? Did the escalating violence also drive you away?”

“Mostly, it was Adam.” Blake winced. “Whenever Yang and I have discussed ‘him,’ Adam is the him we mean. He used to be my boyfriend, and he’s escalated things here in Vale beyond what Sienna Khan did. He’s a vampire too, and we knew each other pretty much the entire time after I ran away from my parents. I was fifteen when we started dating, and he’s centuries old and the more I look back on it the more obvious it is that everything he did was out of hatred, and not to help the Faunus. I hate myself so much, for staying around him, for believing him when he said that we were making the world a better place, and...” she trailed off, completely frozen with her ears pressed against her head.

“It’s okay, you can stop if you want to, I’ve heard enough. I don’t hold your past against you.” Weiss stood up, growing increasingly concerned for Blake’s well being. “Should I get Yang?”

“No.” Blake snapped to attention. “I... stay. Please don’t go.” She reached out a hand.

“Okay.” Weiss took hold of the hand. “Come closer?”

Blake nodded and stood on slightly shaky legs to walk over to Weiss and take a seat next to xyr with carefully created space between them, never releasing xyr hand.

“When Yang found us, how much of what I said did you hear before you left?” Weiss squeezed Blake's hand gently.

“I was gone as soon as you figured it out.”

“So you didn’t hear what I said about my father?” 

“I didn’t.” Blake swallowed visibly.

“For as long as I can remember he has used me as a tool to advance his societal status. He manipulated me. He would tell me stories about the White Fang when I was young, say that they were going to assassinate me if I was a disobedient child. He was convinced that they were out to get him. Until yesterday, I didn’t have a reason to disbelieve him. You terrified me when I found out.” Weiss squeezed Blake’s hand tighter. “But even then, I didn’t want to lose you. And I still have feelings for you.”

“Me too.” Blake visibly relaxed. “I just... let’s try to take things slowly, aside from the whole blood drinking situation.”

“I concur.” Weiss let xyrself lean against Blake. It was a very comfortable position. “Hold me?”

Blake complied with Weiss’ request, and they stayed like that in silence. Xe may have dozed off temporarily, because the next thing she knew Yang crept in carrying a sleeping Ruby in her arms and an amused look on her face.

Weiss shooed Blake back to her own bed in a hurry, and then proceeded to sleep far more soundly than xe had the previous night.

###### Yang

“Hey Yang, can we talk?” Ruby stood awkwardly next to Yang’s bed, interrupting her afternoon reading. 

“Yeah, what’s up?” Yang sat up and swung her legs off the side of her bed. She took a moment to appreciate the way that Ruby’s hair looked perpetually windswept as Ruby gathered the courage to say whatever she had to say.

“WellfirstIwantedtotellyouthatI’mtransgender.” Ruby rambled it all out in a single breath, her nerves incredibly obvious.

“Huh? I missed that.” Yang shook her head apologetically.

“I’m transgender.” Ruby forced the smaller number of words out of her mouth at a comprehensible speed.

“Oh, okay.” Yang nodded in approval. “Cool. I’m guessing that we’re already using the right pronouns?”

“Yeah.” Ruby nodded in relief, then looked confused. “That’s it?”

“Yeah. It’s not like I’m a transphobe or some shit.” Yang shrugged. 

“Right, yeah. I should have known you weren’t, considering Weiss, but it’s still a pretty worrying thing to tell. And also, there’s another thing. You know how it’s tough for me to say things sometimes?” Ruby shifted restlessly from side to side, her gaze flicking about the room more wildly than it normally did.

“Right.” Yang carefully leaned back, fully prepared to wait as long as she needed to.

“So... would it be okay if I just expressed myself with body language?” Ruby smiled shyly, and Yang nodded, even though she still didn’t really know where this was going. Her eyes finally managed to focus on Yang’s face, and they were gorgeously wide as she stood directly in front of Yang, then began to lean forward.

 _Oh, duh_ was the last thing Yang thought before Ruby gave her a quick peck on the lips before hovering nervously just a few inches away from her face. Yang grinned and brought her arms forward to loop behind Ruby’s neck. “I like you too.” 

Ruby ducked her head under Yang’s arms and stood up, a massive smile on her face. She laughed wildly and held her hands out in front of her, gesturing wildly at Yang as she loudly mouthed words of excitement without making any sound, interspersed with laughter. After more than a minute of inarticulate, overwhelmed expression, she fell back onto her bed with a sigh.

“Was that sign language?” Yang walked across the room and sat next to Ruby’s sprawled out form. She almost wanted to pull Ruby into her lap, but that seemed like it might be too much for the poor girl.

“Nah.” Ruby sat up and leaned against Yang more brazenly than usual. “I just sort of...” she made another vague gesture. “I don’t have the words, regardless of what language I use. Not that I know more than one.”

“That’s okay, I think I get the idea well enough anyway.” Yang chuckled and wrapped an arm around Ruby’s shoulders, then cleared her throat. “Ruby, would you be my girlfriend?” 

“Meep.” Ruby squeaked, her entire body momentarily tensing in Yang’s embrace. “I mean, uhh, yeah.” She briefly hugged Yang from the side. 

Yang removed Ruby’s arms and insistently pulled her girlfriend into her lap, where she took a hold of Ruby’s chin and turned Ruby to face her, tilting her head up towards her. “You’re beautiful. Especially when you’re overwhelmed.” 

“Are you torturing me on purpose?” Ruby melted easily in Yang’s grasp, making the cutest mewling sound as she gently scratched under her chin.

“Maaaybe.” Yang smirked. She really wanted to kiss Ruby, but damn if she didn’t just love watching her languish needily in her grasp. 

“Yaang.” Ruby somehow managed to combine her leader voice with her annoyed voice in a way that was just unfairly seductive. “Just kiss me you dummy.”

So Yang did. Ruby was obviously unsure of herself at first, but Yang lingered against her lips, showing her just how to fit things together and encouraging her as she kissed back. She pulled away with a smug grin to look down at a heavily flushed Ruby, who stared back with a dazed expression on her face, lips still slightly parted. Yang trailed her hand up and rubbed the corner of Ruby’s lips with her thumb. “Damn.” She hadn’t really noticed how much she liked Ruby.

“Yeah. Wow.” Ruby put a hand over her mouth, almost daintily. She stared at Yang for a long moment, then scootched off to her side again, leaving a thin slice of space between them. “Sorry. I sort of need a moment, because like, whoa.”

“You don’t need to apologize for doing what you gotta do to be comfortable.” Yang shrugged, though she did already miss being pressed close against Ruby. It had been a while since she had even hooked up with someone, much less caught feelings. Living in a dorm made that sort of thing pretty inconvenient.

Ruby stared at Yang for what felt like a long time. Her eyes watered slightly, and she even had to wipe them with her hands, but she didn’t stop smiling. “I love you.” 

A beat passed in which Yang said nothing. She was more than a little bit taken aback, though she tried to hide it. Ruby flinched immediately after, still seeming to recognise a degree of discomfort in Yang, or maybe she just expected it to be there regardless. 

“Sorry,” Ruby scrambled about aimlessly, her nervousness suddenly multiplied tenfold. “Oh no, sorry, sorry.”

“Whoa, you’re okay, you’re okay.” Yang cleared her throat awkwardly. “You just caught me by surprise, is all. Even I’m not that hotheaded most of the time.” She smiled earnestly.

“Um, hold on a second.” Ruby grabbed her scroll and began reading through something. “I actually took notes because I knew that I’d have to do this at some point because geez I do not have the verbosity for this. Okay.” There was a brief silence in which she skimmed through some document, then put her scroll back away and took a deep breath. “I don’t expect anything from you in response because I said that, and if you me to back off please tell me and I will, right away. It’s just that I get attached to people really easily and I don’t have much control over these things so... yeah.” She twisted her hair around a finger.

“Okay.” Yang nodded, then held her hand out to Ruby. “I’m cool with that. I can’t really say that I love you yet, but I can respect going all out like that.” She admired the way that Ruby laid all her cards out on the table.

“Thanks.” Ruby took the hand and let Yang pull her close again with a deep sigh. “Not to be lewd, but could you do the thumb rub thing?”

“Lewd?” Yang playfully cocked an eyebrow as she complied with Ruby’s request. “If you think that’s lewd, you haven’t seen anything yet.”

Ruby immediately looked down into her lap, face flushing as her hand tightened its grip. “Do you uh, have experience with that sort of thing?”

“Yeah, I hooked up with people a fair bit back in the White Fang. It’s not really a big deal to me. I’m guessing you intend to take things slow? Physically speaking, anyway.” 

“Definitely.” Ruby nodded, then looked back up at Yang, nuzzling into her shoulder. “This is a kind of touch that I don’t really think I can get enough of, but skin contact can be a lot in a way that it’s hard for me to describe. Like just you holding my hand and moving your thumb around has a big effect on me. I’m not really sure if it’s a brain thing or just because I’m really touch starved.”

“That sounds like something I can enjoy using against you.” Yang teased.

“Please do.” Ruby mumbled into Yang’s shoulder. 

“I see, so that’s how it is.” Yang tugged Ruby towards her and kissed her again, lingering just long enough to let Ruby’s mind wander.

“Geez.” Ruby stared at Yang hazily as she was released. “I can’t really believe that this is happening. And... you don’t care that I’m trans?” She mumbled the question meekly.

“Ruby Rose,” Yang firmly took hold of Ruby’s shoulders, “I am a vaguely slutty idiot disaster pansexual who will happily fuck anyone and anything that I find attractive and consents. I think you're very attractive, and I like you as a person quite a bit. The status of your gender is completely irrelevant to me.”

“That really means a lot.” Ruby rested her head against Yang’s shoulder and closed her eyes. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Yang ruffled Ruby’s hair.


	18. Gods Old and New

###### Blake

Once classes were over on the day following the incident at the docks, team RWBY assembled to discuss it, and for Weiss to tell everyone else what they had missed in class. 

“So, I think everyone knows all the things about me that I’ve revealed at this point.” Blake started counting on her fingers. “Vampire, ex-White Fang, cat Faunus...” it felt like she was missing something. Ohh, her dad being Chieftain. It probably didn’t matter though, it wasn’t like she was likely to see him again anyway. And it would probably only complicate things with Weiss.

“Who was that blond guy that was fighting the Fang with us at the docks?” Yang asked.

“That was Sun Wukong. He’s a transfer from Haven who’s going to be fighting in the Vytal Festival tournament. He’s also a famous warrior who keeps escaping the afterlife, according to him.” Blake shrugged.

“Oh, _that_ Sun Wukong? Cool. I gotta fight him sometime.” Yang cracked her knuckles enthusiastically.

“How do you know about him?”

“The clan is on Anima, and a lot of the people we got were locals. I’m not a believer, but I heard a bunch of folk stories and stories about the New Gods, since they’re pretty popular in Anima.” Yang shrugged. “A lot of them are pretty badass, though I hadn’t really considered that they might be true. I always thought that Sun Wukong was one of those ‘V isn’t a person, it’s an idea’ type things, realistically speaking. But vampires and curses are real, so sure, why not gods and the afterlife?”

“I suppose that we may as well believe his claims until we have reason not to. What exactly is this situation with the afterlife and him escaping it?” Weiss said.

“It’s actually pretty complicated. When someone dies they either get to choose whether their destination is judged for them, or if they want to fight their way to it by traveling through the Twisted Arena, or everyone goes to the Twisted Arena to be tested somehow. I’ve heard it told both ways. Necro’lic is the god who guards the afterlife from intrusion by demons, abyssals, or anything that doesn’t belong there getting in, as well as being responsible for keeping people who die within the Twisting Arena and testing them. There are nine exits from the Twisting Arena, one to each of the seven hells, one to heaven, and one to the mortal realm, which is the most fiercely protected, and supposedly not actually meant to be used, or even exist.” 

“Abyssals?” 

“The things that live on the Abyssal Plane. The entire thing with all of the New Gods and the different Planes of existence is pretty complicated, and it’s not even widely agreed on. The concrete information that exists is mostly going off of the claims of rare people who either actually managed to interact with a god at some point, or travel Planes themself, and all of it is open to interpretation and usually self-contradictory. You can probably get an entire thesis in studying it and barely know all that much for sure. All I know is some of the stories. And I remember a bit about Sun Wukong because I thought that he was pretty cool. I hope I get to kick his ass sometime.” Yang grinned.

“I think Pyrrha might believe in them, she swore by Necro’lic at one point.” Blake contemplated. “We could ask her stuff about it, but we should be careful since I’m pretty sure nobody on team JNPR knows about the supernatural and we’re not supposed to tell them.”

“Perhaps it would be best to simply use the internet to satiate any curiosity in that regard.” Weiss mused. “Though this does bring me to wonder if the Old Gods may be real as well.”

“What do you guys mean by Old Gods and New Gods, anyway?” Ruby asked.

“The Old Gods are the Brothers, the God of Light and God of Darkness. They supposedly created Remnant and humanity, then abandoned us for unknown reasons. In their absence it is said that the New Gods came into being when some parts of humanity began to forget them and believe in other deities. Of course, Vacuan warriors killed all of their gods centuries ago, but the Animan ones are quite popular, and Solitas still largely believes in the Brothers.” Weiss exposited.

“I think it might be better if I didn’t learn anything else about all of that, because it sounds really cool and I don’t need to get wrapped up in a new special interest right now.” Ruby grimaced. “That’s so cool though. No, bad. Don’t go research it.”

“I guess I should ask if you’ve all got any other questions about me being a vampire, since we’re changing the subject?” Blake wasn’t too surprised by the fact that it was time to seriously consider the existence of gods and planes of existence. There was way too much unknown to bother thinking too hard about it.

“I have sort of been wondering...” Ruby rubbed her chin in thought. “Where are you getting blood?”

“I’ve been feeding from Weiss. And I think that I’m going to continue to do so?” Blake looked at Weiss questioningly, she certainly hoped so.

“I insist.” Weiss grinned, bearing xyr teeth in a way almost made it feel like xe was the vampire.

“Oh, that makes sense.” Ruby sounded almost disappointed for some reason as she concentrated on her feet. “That’s nice, it sounds romantic.”

“It is, now that I think about it.” Blake looked at Weiss curiously.

“That may be an appropriate term.” Weiss cocked an eyebrow. “If you would happen to be so bold as to presume such a thing.”

“I am.” Blake grinned at Weiss. “Or at least I will be, if you would agree to be my partner.”

“Very well.” Weiss bore xyr teeth in something that wasn’t quite a smile. “I will deign to date you.” Something about the way that xe refused to be direct while slinging playful barbs at her made Blake very happy.

“Why thank you, your Eminence.” Blake rolled her eyes. “I'll make sure to date you so hard you forget to be stuck-up.”

Weiss scoffed, but made no objection to the notion.

###### Weiss

Weiss was beginning to enjoy the process of cooking, despite the fact that it meant xe had to take orders from and work with Yang, who most likely still didn’t exactly care for xyr, though she was no longer vindictive about it. The process of creating something with one’s bare hands was an experience that xe had completely missed out on, with xyr father maintaining the opinion that such things were work meant for the filthy masses.

Still, things between the two of them were somewhat tense, at least from Weiss’ perspective. While Yang was the kind of person who somehow always seemed to be perfectly at ease in life, it was nonetheless obvious that she had spent the last twenty-four hours carefully avoiding the fact that Weiss was now in a relationship with Blake. 

“So, you and Blake, huh?” Yang mused as she put the pan with the salmon they had prepared together into the oven. She wiped off the slight sheen of sweat that had accumulated on her forehead from the heat of the stove. “My threat from before still stands. You metaphorically fuck with her, I break your spine.”

“I’m sure you will.” Weiss believed it.

“On the other hand,” Yang’s expression softened, “I don’t think I’ll need to. As far as our relationship goes, you can consider your probationary period over. After what you said on Sunday, I can’t really hold your initial behavior against you, and now you’ve clearly changed.“

“Thank you. That’s very good to know.” The ghost of a smile passed over Weiss’ lips. “Congratulations about Ruby, by the way. Though I do feel somewhat obligated to complain about the situation, given that her enthusiasm and verbosity have been downright suffocating.”

“If I were as much of a dumbass as I look, I might suspect that you enjoy Ruby’s company, considering that you haven’t just asked her to back off and give you some space.” Yang smirked infuriatingly.

“Indeed, if you were to so much as suggest that I may enjoy the presence of such a happy, delightful, and vibrant person, I would have to shun your existence for the remainder of my life.” Weiss shot back.

“Of course, after all, you’re so very coldhearted and mean.” Yang chuckled. “You know, I thought that you didn’t have a sense of humor when we met. You didn’t even like it when I made a pun.”

“I still don’t like your horrid puns, nor do I have a sense of humor. I am scandalized that you would even imply otherwise.” Weiss turned away from Yang in faux disgust, hiding a smile. 

“That sounds like a pretty _fishy clam_ to me.” Yang winked as she finished setting the timer on her scroll.

“Whatever, I have better things to do than defend myself against your spurious claims.” Weiss turned smugly on xyr heel.

“What things?”

“Things such as make out with your best friend and eat delicious salmon.” 

“If you want to stick your head in and slurp it up raw you’re welcome to do so. I’ll even open the oven door and make sure you don’t fall in.”

The image of somehow slurping up uncooked salmon fillets filled Weiss with a brief moment of uncontrollable disgust. “No, thank you, I prefer cooked meat. Furthermore, for some odd reason, I find myself suspecting that you may take it upon yourself to push me into the oven.”

“Whatever, I guess I was going to make out with your combat partner anyway.” Yang dramatically opened the dorm room door for Weiss.

“You are perfectly free to do so.” Weiss shrugged and stepped into the room. It wasn’t as if xe cared. Probably. Ruby was a wonderful and inexplicably friendly, endlessly kind person, so good for Yang.

“What’s this about making out?” Blake lay spread out on her bed, ears perked.

“Exactly how well can you hear things?” Weiss strode over to Blake as casually as xe could manage.

“Well enough that I caught that entire conversation from ‘you and Blake’ onward.” 

“Being a vampire is cheating. Your hearing is even more stupidly good than it was before.” Yang pouted.

“Look on the bright side, we’re never going to get snuck up on by Grimm with me around.” Blake shrugged, then beckoned Weiss into her lap.

A roll of the eyes concealed Weiss’ giddyness as xe fit xyrself into Blake’s lap. For a brief moment xe bore xyr neck before realizing that they were doing this for reasons other than feeding.

“My, someone still has a certain habit, don’t they?” Blake teased, not missing a thing about the way that Weiss squirmed in her lap in response. “Good.” She purred into xyr ear.

“Get a room?” Yang watched from the other side of the room with amused confusion.

“This is their room. And we’re very soon going to be eating dinner as two couples.” Ruby interlaced her fingers with Yang’s once they were in range of each other.

“Oh shit, every dinner we cook ourselves is going to be a double date from now on isn’t it?” Blake sounded both concerned and excited, a conflict that Weiss wholeheartedly agreed with.

“Technically, yes. However, they don’t have to be. We could always make sure we sit next to the two people on the team we aren’t dating.” Weiss didn’t think that xe actually wanted to do such a thing. It had only been a single day over which xe had gradually tested xyr and Blake’s boundaries for casual touch, and now that xe had access to such casually intimate physical contact after going essentially xyr entire life without, xe was reasonably sure that xe would never be able to get enough. Blake was just so warm and soft, yet firm at all the right times. The connection and the contact between them was still somewhat tentative, often reserved, but they were both dedicated to working hard to be closer.

“No thanks.” Ruby wrapped an arm around Yang’s waist possessively, then made a noise that sounded something like an angry cat.

“Oh, good.” Blake laughed. “I was hoping we wouldn’t do something silly like that. I’m quite looking forward to my first date with Weiss.” She smirked.

“Well, we have had a romantically charged meal together in the past. Perhaps that could be said to be the first date.” Weiss smirked knowingly.

“But I was the only one who ate.” 

“That can be corrected.” Weiss stuck xyr tongue out at Blake, who immediately blushed.

“I appreciate the sentiment, but that isn’t happening.” Blake pet Weiss’ head apologetically. “Not for a while.”

“Of course, that’s perfectly understandable. The offer, however, is open.”

“Damn, somebody’s thirsty.” Yang winked at Weiss.

“Of course I am. I realize that I may appear to be an ephemeral deity who has graced all of you with my immaculate presence, but I also happen to be an emotionally repressed teenager who is now dating a beautiful woman that I also have the fortune to live with.” Weiss rolled xyr eyes. Xe was perfectly capable of self-analysis.

“Same.” Ruby nodded thoughtfully.

“On a more forthright note however,” Weiss turned xyr head to look directly into Blake’s eyes, “I would very much enjoy going on a date with you.”

“Hmmm.” Blake contemplated. “As tempting as that suggestion is, and as nice as Yang’s salmon is, I think we could arrange for something a little bit more romantic than a regular dinner in our dorm as our first date.”

Weiss sighed. “Very well, I suppose I shall find a means by which to curb my enthusiasm.”

“Your patience will be rewarded.” Blake smirked.  
.  
“Is that so?” Weiss raised an eyebrow. “I can’t wait for everything you know.”

“You don’t say?” Blake hummed gently, then leaned forward and kissed Weiss. Her mouth lingered for a long moment as Weiss happily pressed xyrself into the kiss.

###### From the Official RWBYJNPR Friendship Group Chat

WeissSchnee: Ruby, why did you call the group chat that?

scentOfARose: because I’m not used to having friends and it’s nice to remind myself

LITning: mood

speaknoLies: mood

WeissSchnee: Understandable, have a nice day.

MagneticPersonality: mood

Shadowblade: mood

WeissSchnee: What is this “mood”?

PUNisher: it means that you feel the same way as a statement someone made

PUNisher: do I need to teach you the lesibab slangs?

WeissSchnee: There is an entire subset of slang for lesbians?

LITning: ...

MagneticPersonality: you poor child

MagneticPersonality: Yang, if you would teach xyr slang, I will take care of meme culture

scentOfARose: you know memes?!!

MagneticPersonality: anonymous Internet forums and group chats were in fact the majority of my social experience with others my age growing up, other than fighting

scentOfARose: Pyrrha knows how to meme? I am way too gay for this

PUNisher: mood

PUNisher: wait no, but you’re literally my girlfriend

scentOfARose: I’m sorry my love, but I simply cannot resist the sweet temptations of women

PUNisher: mood

trebuchetArc: mood

WeissSchnee: Mood.

Shadowblade: mood

LITning: oh my gods you guys are dating and your only now telling me!!!!!!!

WeissSchnee: *you’re

Shadowblade: also might as well mention I’m dating Weiss

LITning: I will strangle all of you in your sleep if you don’t start telling me these things sooner!

trebuchetArc: please don’t

speaknoLies: don’t worry, she probably won’t

Shadowblade: that only makes me more concerned

LITning: I probably won’t

PUNisher: that’s actually kinda hot

scentOfARose: jokes on you, I’m into that shit

LITning: sksjskssgfsdfga

WeissSchnee: That is the most disturbing thing you two have ever said in my presence. 

scentOfARose: cool, new record to beat

Shadowblade: you’re hardly in a position to judge

WeissSchnee: That is...

WeissSchnee: Don’t you dare reveal that.

Shadowblade: I will if you kinkshame again

trebuchetArc: how tf are you all dating people now? Lucky

scentOfARose: I don’t know, I never thought that I’d get this far

Shadowblade: what can i say? I’m a regular pussy magnate

MagneticPersonality: lol

Shadowblade: *magnet, fuck

Shadowblade: actually, fuck it

PUNisher: nice

MagneticPersonality: and Jaune, maybe you’re just missing an opportunity right under your nose, you’re a great guy, I’m sure someone likes you

trebuchetArc: nah, I doubt it

WeissSchnee: How is this still happening?

LITning: this man is DUMMY THICC, and I’m not talking about his very nice thighs

trebuchetArc: am I missing something?

MagneticPersonality: no, not at all

trebuchetArc: okay

PUNisher: you absolute fucking himbo

trebuchetArc: did I do something wrong :(

LITning: NO BULLI JAUNE; WILL BREAK LEGS

PUNisher: you were just bullying him!!

speaknoLies: Jaune, you have done nothing wrong, ever

MagneticPersonality: you are physically incapable of doing wrong you precious man

trebuchetArc: okayyyyy?

PussyMagnate: how is it that you guys are the oblivious ones when we’re the team with two lesbians?

MagneticPersonality: I ask myself this question every day

trebuchetArc: unrelated, but does anyone know what happened to the microwave?

LITning: what’s wrong with the wave

speaknoLies: I haven’t used it all day

trebuchetArc: it broke

LITning: F

scentOfARose: F

PUNisher: F

scentOfARose: oh, that’s what the scary noise earlier today was

scentOfARose: I think Pyrrha was saying something about making a burrito

trebuchetArc: Pyrrha, what did you do?

MagneticPersonality: nothing?

speaknoLies: ...

MagneticPersonality: I put the burrito in the microwave and it was in the same hand as the knife and fork I was gonna eat it with and I put them in too and I didn’t notice until it was too late

trebuchetArc: again?

MagneticPersonality: sorry

WeissSchnee: that is a perfectly reasonable mistake to make for anyone who eats burritos with a knife and fork!

PussyMagnate: Weiss, is there something you want to tell us?

WeissSchnee: I may have actually been responsible for the first microwave incident when Pyrrha first suggested I eat a burrito with a knife and fork so as to not get my hands dirty.

PUNisher: rich people are weird

WeissSchnee: Just because burritos taste good does not mean that I must tolerate messiness. Especially my own messiness.

PussyMagnate: I am a strong believer in the inherent eroticism of a complete lack of common sense

scentOfARose: ohhhhh, that must be why Yang likes me

PUNisher: I like you because you’re a wonderful dork, you dork

scentOfARose: aefdgadfgaerfkjbhb

WeissSchnee: I have far more common sense than any woman who insists on shouting stupid puns in the middle of a fight.

PUNisher: they work, don’t they ;) 

PUNisher: you get pretty pissed off, and then I win

WeissSchnee: You have no notable tendency to win fights with me.

WeissSchnee: Also, is Ruby okay?

PUNisher: yeah, a keysmash is just gay for “oh my gosh you’re so pretty and I really like you”

WeissSchnee: I see

PussyMagnate: holy shit xe’s taking notes

PussyMagnate: there’s an entire notebook being dedicated to learning slang and memes as I type

LITning: this is the best group chat I’ve ever been in

speaknoLies: this is the only group chat you’ve ever been

LITning: exactly! still the best

PussyMagnate: has anyone else noticed how cute it is when xe sticks the tongue out of the corner of xyr mouth a little bit as xe concentrates really hard on something?

WeissSchnee: adsfadfgaefh

PussyMagnate: :3

scentOfARose: gayyyyyy

MagneticPersonality: https://imgflip.com/i/4cy807

scentOfARose: yes, and?

MagneticPersonality: just sayin

PUNisher: nah, it’s more like https://imgflip.com/i/4cy8wc

speaknoLies: I believe that all of us like girls, actually

MagneticPersonality: https://imgflip.com/i/4cy96i

PUNisher: mood

LITning: girls be bitchin’

trebuchetArc: I guess people should stop calling you the Invincible Girl and start calling you Meme Queen, huh?

MagneticPersonality: honestly anything is better than Invincible Girl

Is Pyrrha the Meme Queen? (7 votes)  
Yes: 100%  
No: 0%

LITning: hear ye, hear ye, so it be by the will of the good people of this dumbass group chat

scentOfARose: and there was much rejoicing

###### Yang

For the second time since coming to Beacon, Yang took the heavily creased manilla envelope that normally rested in the inner chest pocket of her jacket from its permanent residence. She turned it over, carefully eying the nearly immaculate wax seal that remained on its cover. This was the first time she had ever so much as considered opening it.

It wasn’t that she cared about who she was biologically related to. Whoever it was was probably impossible to contact anyway, after eighteen years. But whatever information was in there would probably include things about her mom’s early life. _That_ she wanted to know. She didn’t want to leave Raven to stew in whatever it was about her past that bothered her any longer. Maybe finding it out and reassuring her that she loved her could help. 

But there was also what Raven had said the last time they’d talked. About things that were better off not known. She seemed to believe that, and to have been referring to her own past, or to Ozpin. Maybe both. It was all such a mess. Maybe it would be better to just burn it in the first place. But Yang didn’t want to just ignore the past. Not when it was so very obviously filled with secrets that were still hurting both her and Ruby’s mothers.

Yang traced the edge of the envelope where the seal met paper. Such a delicate thing, it would be so easy to break. But would breaking it be for the best? What was learned could not be unlearned. It was the same apprehension she felt the first time she had tried to find a greater understanding of Blake’s relationship with Adam.

“Hey Yang, what’s up?” Ruby popped up over the edge of Yang’s bed.

“Gah!” Yang nearly lost hold of the envelope as she jolted in surprise.

“What’s that?” Ruby’s attention immediately jumped to the envelope.

“It’s... nothing.” Yang slid the envelope back into her pocket. “What’s up?”

“I’ve been thinking that we should go on a date. Soon.” Ruby mercifully refrained from comment on the envelope as she climbed up into the bed and leaned over Yang, her eyes wide and hopeful. “Like, tomorrow, maybe? If that’s okay.”

“I’d love to. Do you have something in mind?” Yang pulled Ruby in to spoon against her.

“Nope!” Ruby replied with an unreasonable amount of cheer for what she was saying. “I tried, but I got choice paralysis.”

“I’m guessing that you don’t like clubs?”

“Not if they’re loud, full of people, or have lots of flashing lights.”

“You just described every club ever.”

“Yeah, I thought so. I like quiet, dark, and enclosed spaces like cuddling under a blanket. They’re cozy.” Ruby spread her wings across both of their bodies and nuzzled up to Yang affectionately.

“Cozy, huh? I like the sound of that too.” Yang absentmindedly ran a hand through Ruby’s short hair, wondering what kind of place they could both enjoy. There had been a certain, somewhat peculiar business that she remembered seeing around Vale at some point which sounded quite intriguing. “How do you feel about cats?”

“I loves them!” An almost feral glint appeared in Ruby’s eye as she shot up to look at Yang from only an inch away. “I loves them so much. They preeeccious. Precious catses.”

“In that case I might have an idea for a place with a pretty cozy atmosphere, though it would probably be well lit.” Yang laughed. She could smell a faint hint of coco on Ruby’s breath. It was a very tempting scent.

“Cool, cool, coolcoolcool.” Ruby’s attention seemed to have been completely absorbed by Yang’s eyes. “Your eyes are really pretty. I don’t normally look people in the eyes so I haven’t noticed them before but they’re _so_ pretty.”

“So are yours.” Yang decided that there was no reason to not kiss her girlfriend right now, so she did. Ruby’s eyes fluttered shut as she melted into the kiss, trailing her hands along Yang’s well toned arms as she released her body weight into Yang’s arms. Yang ran a hand through Ruby’s hair once more, pulling her deeper into the kiss, but released as soon as she felt Ruby start to sit up.

“Mmmmm.” Ruby was practically vibrating with happiness as she giggled in the simultaneously cute and slightly sexy way of hers. It took effort not to think too hard about the fact that she was currently straddling Yang’s lap, in bed. “Kissing is fun.”

“You haven’t seen anything yet.” Yang stuck out her tongue suggestively.

Ruby blushed, then hid her face behind her hands. “It’s not bothering you, is it?”

“Is what?”

“That I’m not as uh...” Ruby rocked her head from side to side. “Enthusiastic as you are, physically speaking.”

“No. Of course not. I don’t want to rush you in any way, and I’m happy to enjoy what you’re comfortable with. I just love watching your reactions. They’re adorable, but if you want I’ll stop.” 

“Oh.” Ruby removed her hands to reveal a gigantic, if slightly nervous, grin. “I do enjoy it too, actually. You always pull yourself back when you need to.”

“Good, good.” Yang cackled gleefully. She extended a hand to Ruby, who took it, interlacing their fingers with a shudder.

“Can I touch your abs?” Ruby’s eyes practically shone with excitement as Yang nodded. The fingers of her free hand immediately started to delicately trace over Yang’s abs, making her shiver as soft, cool fingers trailed over hard, hot muscle. “Ohhhh. I love muscles.”

“I’m willing to bet you’ve got some of your own.” Yang was trying really hard not to think about Ruby’s hands trailing a little bit lower, and instead consider how much sweet sweet back and arm muscle she must have from wielding a scythe. 

“Yeah, but they’re not that useful for close quarters combat. I’m sure you could overpower me with ease.” Ruby winked, the hand that was holding Yang’s clenching tighter for a moment. She pressed her entire palm against Yang’s abs, sending another pleasant trail of warmth up her spine.

“You are a dangerously irresistible woman, and I will happily do just that the minute you give the word.” Yang bore her teeth at Ruby with a smile, who blushed heavily at the compliment. It really was wonderfully easy to get her with compliments.

“You’d better. Or else I might abuse my power as team leader to get you detention.” Ruby leaned forward and cuddled up next to Yang, who wrapped a wing around her, her hand still tracing Yang’s abs absentmindedly.

“Sure you will.” Yang kissed Ruby’s forehead, somehow managing to make her own heart flutter happily as she did so. Damn, she was really falling for this girl.

###### Ruby

“Who’s a good chainsaw hand? You are! Yes you are! Yes you areeee.” Ruby appreciated the final coat of red paint on her new detachable hand, cooing happily as she polished it and made it nice and shiny. “Momma loves you so much, yes she does. You’re gonna do such a good job at chopping up Grimm, yesyesyesyes.” She rubbed the hard metal against her cheek lovingly.

“You finished it?” Blake peeked up from behind her book. “Nice.”

“Come on, let’s go spar.” Ruby detached her normal hand from her arm and screwed the chainsaw hand on, careful not to activate it. It already felt weird not to have any fingers, even though it wasn’t as if she had any nerve endings in the hand anyway.

“I’m really into this book.” Blake stared intensely at the book, and Ruby thought that Blake might be blushing slightly. “You might just need to wait until tomorrow.”

“Oh.” Ruby switched back to her normal hand. Blake didn’t say anything else. They sat in silence for a while. Aaaaand now she was bored. She stood up and started pacing, unable to think of what she felt like doing now. Yang wasn’t here to cuddle and chat with, and Weiss wasn’t here to help motivate her to work on homework. “What’s the book about?”

“A bunch of really gay magical girls.” Blake licked her lips, her eyes briefly flicking up to look at Ruby as she spoke. 

“That sounds awesome, can I borrow it sometime?” Ruby walked over to Blake and tried to look over her shoulder, but Blake moved the book out of her line of sight.

“It might not be to your taste.” Blake put the bookmark in and hastily closed the book. “It’s...”

“Is it smut?” Ruby perched with her chin against her palm, staring calmly at Blake.

“Yes.” Blake looked pointedly at the sheets, her cat ears sticking up cutely in obvious nervousness.

“So can I borrow it sometime?” Ruby grinned, trying to make Blake comfortable.

“Uh, yeah? I guess.” Blake suddenly laughed. “I just...” she flinched.

“What’s wrong?” Ruby hovered at the side of Blake’s bed, not sure what to do.

Blake’s eyes fixed on a point in the distance. “I’m not used to being honest about the fact that I enjoy myself, in that kind of way. I made sure to keep this kind of book a secret in the White Fang.” She heaved out a shuddering breath.

“I, um, I don’t judge people or anything. You’re okay. It would be silly of me if I did since, you know...” Ruby trailed off. She had no idea what to do. “Would it help if you held my hand?”

“Yeah. I think that would be helpful.” Blake mostly buried herself further into her bed, but she also stuck out a hand, which Ruby took in both of hers. She stared at nothing, her breathing deep and fast. Eventually she started to slow down, squeezing Ruby’s hand tightly as she did. The tense silence between them ended when Blake squeezed Ruby’s hand one last time and let go as the tension in her shoulders drained. “Thanks.”

“It’s nothing special.” Ruby tried to let her own heartbeat slow as she paid careful attention to the way Blake relaxed. She focused on the cute way that Blake’s ears were once again in a relaxed position. 

“Nah, you’re a pretty special person.” Blake smiled gently. “Anyway, this is the first book in the series.” She grabbed a book from the shelf behind her head and handed it to Ruby.

“Cool, thanks.” Ruby took the book, then glanced uncertainly at Blake. “You’re sure you’re okay?”

“Okay enough for now.” Blake nodded.

“Okay.” Ruby hovered next to Blake for a moment, then went over to her own bed and curled up with the book. It was a really good book, but it was still hard to concentrate on it.


	19. A Simple Middle-Aged Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> school bad, make me write less
> 
> also 100k words!

###### Jaune

“Do you ever wonder what team RWBY gets up to without us around? It must be boring.” Jaune stared up at the ceiling from his bed, totally not bored at all.

“I wonder if people just stand around like NPCs whenever they’re out of my line of sight. Would that mean that Ren isn’t Ren if I'm not looking directly at them?” Nora grabbed Ren’s shoulders and began violently shaking them as she continued along with her sudden train of thought. “Are you! Do I need to spend the rest of my life watching you! I’ll do it, I’ll fucking do it!”

“It’s fine.” Ren calmly pressed their forehead against Nora’s as their bodies faded into the monochrome of their semblance. “I’m still there when you can’t see me.”

Nora heaved one last shuddering breath before the tension drained from her shoulders and she leaned against Ren. “I guess.” Nevertheless, she kept a wary eye on them.

“Please don’t forget that object permanence is real.” Pyrrha looked up from the essay she was writing with a look of mild concern. “It’s a bit important in a fight, and I really don’t want any of us to die.”

“Don’t worry, I’m okay.” A slightly loopy smile appeared on Nora’s face as the effects of Ren’s semblance faded from her. “Just... ummmm, nothing.” She jumped up. “I’m getting a snack! See you later, Ren, Ren Junior, Ren the Third.” She ran out of the door without explanation, presumably to the cafeteria.

“I wonder which of us is Junior, and which is the Third.” Jaune gave up and put away the comic book he hadn’t actually been able to read in days. It was oddly difficult to find the motivation to read lately, ever since Weiss had let them all know xe was a nonbinary lesbian. Jaune had deliberately cut off his pining over xyr at that point, and in retrospect it was a pretty preposterous thing to do in the first place. He was reasonably sure that he wasn’t moping about Weiss, not specifically.

Sometimes it felt incredibly strange, being in a school social setting. Growing up, nearly everyone he knew had been his family. They’d lived a relatively isolated life, just the ten of them in an increasingly expansive cabin in the deep woods of southern Sanus. They mostly lived off of his father’s pension from fighting on the right side of the Faunus Rights Revolution, as well as a decent amount of hunting for villages that were somewhat nearby, both Grimm and deer. Of course, Jaune had never been allowed to come along on either kind of hunt. 

In retrospect it was a fair decision, but even from a young age Jaune had wanted to be a huntsman, well, huntress at first, before his sisters had educated him about trans things and his life started to make a bit more sense. His father had insisted none of his children would grow up to bear the same burdens he did, not if he had any hand in it. Jaune was self-aware enough to know that he probably still had no idea what being a huntsman would really entail, but getting to know his classmates and professors was making him more sure than ever that it was what he wanted.

It was probably homesickness that kept nagging at him. By the time he had left home only three of his sisters were still living there permanently, though all of them visited fairly often, and always for holidays. None of them lived in Vale, and even the ones that were on the same continent were too far away to visit. He felt lonely without them, even though he was around his new friends so often. He’d probably just been focusing on Weiss to distract himself from it. He’d never been away from all of his family members like this before.

“Jaune.” At some point Pyrrha had walked over to his bedside and was now poking him gently on the face. “You’re moping.”

“Moping? Me? Nah you know me. I’m a regular old mister sunshine. I’m just... a bit tired. That ursa from Professor Port’s pop quiz today was a real battle of endurance.” It was actually the first time he had beaten an ursa on his own, although it was definitely on the small side.

“Tired enough that you don’t even want to read?” Pyrrha gave him a knowing look. 

“Okay, okay, I guess I might be a little bit homesick.” Jaune sighed. He couldn't really manage to hide anything when Pyrrha looked at him with so much open concern.

“Where is home?” 

“Down south, not too far from the mountains that separate Vale and Vacuo. The forest is so dense and vibrant out there. There’s a lot of rain because mountains do that, it’s the whole meteorological effect that they have. I actually kind of enjoyed cleaning out the deer darcasses dad brought home sometimes.” Jaune laughed. “Five of my sisters were totally grossed out about it. The other two, Saffron and Azure, made plans to scare them with some of the extra guts sometimes, and mom always got mad at us about it.” He sighed.

“That’s a very large family.” Ren’s attention was piqued by the discussion, and they wandered their way over to take a seat on the free side of Jaune’s bed.

“I miss them.” He sighed. “But I’m going to keep going. Gotta hold my head high, keep working to protect people.”

“That sounds like a huntsman all right.” Pyrrha nodded. “I’d kind of like to think that we’re sort of a family too.”

“Nora’s almost always been my family. And she’s starting to think that way about both of you as well.” Ren smiled faintly.

“Why did she go, anyway?” Jaune looked at the door. It was weird for Ren to be present but not Nora, they were very close to inseparable.

“I don’t know.” Ren glanced at the door as well. They were actually worried, weren’t they? “Lately, I don’t always know how to help her. I’m not used to that.”

“It happens to the best of us.” Jaune tentatively rested and hand on Ren’s shoulder, then left it there when they didn’t move away. “Sometimes you just gotta let people figure their things out.”

Ren stared at Jaune in a moment of confusion, but didn’t say anything about it.

“I think I’m going to go look for her.” Pyrrha got up with a sigh. “She doesn’t really seem like the kind of person who wants to be alone.”

“Good luck.” Jaune smiled, and Ren nodded along. 

“Thank you.”

###### Coco

“Oi Fox, move that fine ass off the couch, I got a customer.” Coco started pulling out her fabric samples as she gave Fox a minute to get himself up off of the couch.

 _How much did you have to threaten this one?_ Fox didn’t move a muscle, instead using his semblance to speak telepathically. He had either been meditating or listening to an audiobook, and either way he probably wasn’t getting up without a fight.

“Personally, I am far more inclined to threaten you than she is to threaten me.” Weiss glared futilely at the blind bastard on the couch, xyr voice laced with an icy threat that xe probably didn’t mean. Probably.

“Children, please. There’s no need to argue.” Coco snatched Fox’s earbuds from his ears and tossed them across the room. “Fetch.”

Fox groaned, and started the long process of getting off the couch. To be fair, it was a very comfortable couch. It had to be, considering the copious amounts of sex the team had on it. _How could you force a poor blind man to scrabble about for his possessions like this?_

“Shut up drama queen, you can find them perfectly easily with Ada.” Coco casually slapped Fox’s ass as he walked by. It’s important to tenderize such a fine cut of meat, after all.

Weiss pointedly cleared xyr throat and claimed the vacated couch. “Are you going to get to work anytime soon?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m working on it.” Coco pulled out her box of fabric samples. “Here’s the stuff that’s good for suits. I’m guessing you’re interested in a shade of blue? Are you planning on wearing this with or without a binder?”

“Blues, as well as at least one black and white piece, yes. As far as binders go, I have no plans to use them.” 

“Oh, planning on wearing some of your girlfriend’s colors?” Coco ribbed.

“I am simply aware that I look good in black as well as white. The color combination itself is timeless.” Weiss replied stiffly. 

“I guess I won’t specifically pick something to coordinate with her usual outfit then.” Coco innocently put away her reference sketches of Blake’s outfit.

“You will coordinate them.” Weiss demanded in a tone that inspired Coco to add a ten percent obstinacy charge to xyr final bill.

“That’s what I thought, although you could certainly stand to be more honest about this. It would probably make both of our lives easier.” Coco admonished Weiss with a sarcastic wag of her finger.

“I will take it under advisement.” Weiss’ voice was as dry as Vacuo.

It took a great deal of concentrated distraction to make Weiss cooperate enough to pick out exactly what xe wanted, though xe was utterly indignant when Coco refused to take xyr measurement. Velvet could give her the measurements of anyone she had seen fighting, as a side effect of her semblance.

“There is one more matter, unrelated to clothing.” Weiss set aside the materials xe had been reviewing. “Why did you inform the faculty of Blake?”

“Whatever do you mean?” Coco raised an eyebrow.

“I assume that your team is all in the know, yes?” Weiss stared at Coco expectantly, and she reluctantly nodded. “It was quite surprising when Blake was approached by Professor Peach about her situation. The giveaway was clearly the change to her semblance, but only team RWBY was aware of that change, meaning that somehow that information moved from us to the faculty. I know that none of team JNPR are aware of the supernatural world yet, therefore, given that you four are the other team we regularly interact with, someone likely told you about it. My guess is that Ruby told you, because you asked her to provide you with information if there was a sign that one of us was a demihuman. I expect to be given a reason for such a misuse of your position as our mentor.”

“Professor Goodwitch suspected that one of you was demihuman, so she asked me to. I owe her and Ozpin, they helped me out with an incident involving a crab god last year.” That crab had meant well, but it had been a cruel kindness, even if on an unconscious level Coco had welcomed its presence. It had taken away her weight, and the weight of her memories. Now it was gone and she was back, with something extra. All thanks to Ozpin’s assistance, and the strength she borrowed from Velvet, Fox, and Yatsu, though Ozpin still meticulously claimed that she had saved herself.

“I suppose that I have no choice but to accept that.” Weiss clicked xyr tongue.

“I’d apologise, but I repay my debts.” Coco shrugged.

“An understandable sentiment.” Weiss stared contemplatively at Coco for a long moment. “Why reveal that information to me?”

“You can consider it recompense for my espionage, if you like.” 

“You are not aware of my situation?”

“That kind of information is a one way street with Ozpin. But even beyond that, I wouldn’t want to intrude on privacy. Whatever’s happening with you, I don’t know anything about it.” Coco hadn’t even known there was something happening with anyone other than Blake.

Weiss relaxed slightly, sinking into the couch a little bit. “Would you mind if I stayed for a time? I find myself interested in this crab of yours.”

“If that’s the only reason for you to stick around you might as well leave.” Coco got up and headed to her work desk, which was currently cluttered with sheets of paper, a sewing machine, and miscellaneous threads. “I’ve got work to do, and I don’t tell that story to just anyone.”

“You intend to force me to show my hand?” Weiss looked positively dejected as xe clicked xyr tongue once again.

“I don’t play these games at all. You’re welcome to stay if you want, just don’t hide behind excuses.” Coco smiled once her back was turned. It seemed like Weiss intended to work xyr way out of xyr shell.

 _What she means is, don’t just sit there and hog her attention, we need a fourth for poker._ Fox butted in from across the room, sat around a kotatsu with Velvet and Yatsu. _I am a bit short on cash._

“Don’t listen to him, we just play for plastic chips and bragging rights.” Velvet frowned sternly at Fox as he shrugged innocently.

 _And other things, on Friday nights._ Fox grinned devilishly. Three of the other people in the room knew exactly what he meant, and they responded with a blown kiss, blush, and raised eyebrow, respectively.

“Why do I suspect that I’m going to regret this?” Nonetheless, Weiss forced xyrself off of the couch and took a seat in the empty spot at the kotatsu.

###### Melania

“Take another step and it’s your last for a long while.” Melania, better known as Lil’ Miss Malachite, distrusted this man the moment she saw him. 

If there was such a thing as an honest criminal, she liked to consider herself one. She had a reputation to uphold, and a network with which to spread. She had come far enough, brutally enough to earn the respect and fear of her peers, and to maintain that required strict adherence to the Rogue’s Code, lest she draw the ire of the pesky Guild. 

From the moment this man walked through the door to the humble bar she had made into her base of operations, she could tell that this was not the kind of man who respected the Code. Something about the sheer audacity with which he oozed threat immediately rubbed her the wrong way. 

He swayed from side to side as he walked, as if in a breeze, his expression thoroughly careless and unimpressed. Every movement was simultaneously casual and tense, the epitome of false bravado, worn so blatantly as to suggest some sort of strange pride in the false nature of the act itself.

“Of course.” He bowed mockingly, his dead fish eyes scanning the room as he did so. “I am Kuro Kuokana, your humble customer, come to make an arrangement.”

“Humble my ass, you’ve nearly talked my people’s ears off trying to get a damn meeting with me. Why?” Melania glared impatiently. At least he had the decency to present a facsimile of respect, but that was no excuse for wasting her time.

“I’m afraid that the matter is a rather delicate one, and my employer would appreciate if the situation were kept somewhat more private than our current company includes.” Kuro gestured expectantly at the guards who flanked him. 

“And why should I do that?” 

“I am simply a middle aged man with no real fighting capability. I doubt that I could overpower the average teenager. Your men will confirm that I am completely unarmed, whereas you I’m sure must be quite capable of self-defence, to have lived to be as influential as you are.” Kuro was baiting her, it was obvious enough. But to refuse to send away the guards now would make her look like a coward.

“Leave us.” She gestured for them to leave and they did so, silently. Her glare returned to Kuro. “Now, get on with it.”

“You have an arrangement with the Branwen Clan, by which you warn them of efforts by the forces of law to end their business. I wish to ensure that you fail to follow through with that contract.”

“Lionheart actually thinks he can do something to stop me this time?” It was almost funny, the way Leo kept thinking that he could avoid her notice. Now he thought that he could strike a deal with her? “It’s not happening darlin’. Rule number seventeen of the Rogues’ Code, a contract is a contract is a contract. I don’t break my contracts.”

“And what if it should become difficult to maintain that contract?” Kuro’s hands danced a meaningless pattern into the air as his face twisted into an unreadable expression. 

“Sweetheart, if that’s meant to be a threat, you’re in for one hell of a rebuttal.” Melania drawled, and her hand casually slipped to her sidearm.

“Oh no, not at all. As I said, I am no fighter. I am a specialist, a spiritualist, perhaps.” Kuro began to stalk about, his posture not unlike a pidgeon’s. “The question is simply a test of your resolve. How far will you go to fulfill that obligation?”

“I’m a goddamn professional. Professionals have standards, and I meet those standards. I’ll go as far as it takes to get the job done. If that includes sendin’ a pair of caps through your head, so be it. Now either get to the point, or leave.” Melania was growing tired of this man very rapidly, and she could feel a headache slowly growing behind her eyes. The afterimages of his odd hand motions seemed to linger, forming odd shapes in her mind.

“In other words, you will eschew your responsibilities in a heartbeat, given an excuse. Why is it that you value money, hmmm? Power? Notoriety? That is what I would expect from someone who cares only about completing their work, and fails to understand the meaning behind it. The true beauty of money. Driven by nothing but greed, your motivation is weak. Good.” Kuro’s hands sped up as he turned the full force of his focus onto Melania. A strange, disjointed, unblinking stare.

“How dare...” Melania wanted to throw this idiot out of the room, but for some reason she couldn’t move. Rage seethed beneath her skin. Shapes, images, she was practically paralysed, and thoroughly disoriented. 

“Don’t worry, you will fully recover. It's perfectly harmless. A trick of the light, really. A week of bed rest will do you well. Of course, by then the Branwen Clan will have been eliminated. How convenient for you that you’ve happened to become bedridden with a mysterious illness.” Kuro bowed mockingly one last time before Melania’s vision went completely dark. “Good evening, and goodbye. Given that you most likely want me dead right now, I can assure you we won’t cross paths again.”

###### Nora

Stupid Ren. Why did they have to be so sweet? And gentle? And just the best friend she’d ever had? Not that she’d had any other friends her age before Beacon. She just couldn’t stand being around them sometimes lately. She wanted to just bury her head in a plushie of some kind and curl up under a blanket crying until they got the damn message.

It was a tempting idea to go to the Beacon gyms and work out, but she knew better than to do that when she was distressed, she’d probably just end up in the infirmary. Instead she ended up going to the only other place that she felt like she would be able to scream. The roof, specifically the side that looks out over the Emerald Forest.

“Stupid Ren!” Nora punched the roof with every word. “Giant dummy!” She didn’t really care about the fact that she was sort of destroying the dorm roof. “Aaaaaaaaaaarrgggggggggghh! Stupid fucking semblance, stupid everything!” She switched to beating her own chest.

That semblance. That stupid semblance. It was really helpful, Ren always used it to help her calm down, but now what was the point? The moment they stopped using it she couldn’t help thinking about how much she loved them and start panicking all over again.

Nora loved everyone really, unless they gave her a reason to hurt them. She had lots of room in her heart for a ton of people. But she especially loved Ren and why couldn't they just notice already and hold her?

“Nora!” Pyrrha wrapped her arms around Nora’s waist. “Please stop.”

Rather than fight Pyrrha and risk falling off the roof, Nora just twisted around and threw herself around into Pyrrha’s arms. Distantly, she realized that her ribs hut, and she had run out of aura at some point. “I hate them!” She started sobbing violently. It was all too much to handle. How could someone be so wonderful and amazing and so dumb?

“There there.” Pyrrha hesitantly patted Nora’s back as she broke down.

“I love that idiot so fucking much!” Nora slammed her fist against Pyrrha’s back. She just needed to hit something.

“Mood.” Pyrrha took a few steps back and sat down, letting Nora cry herself out into her shoulder. It took a while.

“Why?” Nora keened, too tired for any more screaming. There were a lot of why’s. Too many to list.

“You’re important to me.” Pyrrha answered the one that she could. “And Ren, and Jaune. Even if they aren’t exactly the most in touch with their feelings, or other people’s.” Her fingers trailed through Nora’s hair, coaxing a sigh out of her.

“I hope so.” Nora sniffed. This was nice, touch was always very grounding for her. Pun intended. 

“Ren is always doing everything they can to support you. They love you, in one way or another.” Pyrrha’s voice was soothing.

“Or another.” Nora sighed. She didn’t want to move. And she wished she had a blanket.

“You want to go back to the dorm?”

“Nah, sun’s nice. Too tired to move.” Nora didn’t really want to let go of Pyrrha either.

###### Cinder

“And with Roman Torchwick’s return, we have returned to being on schedule with dust collection. Efforts at Mountain Glenn are also proceeding apace, the circle is being inscribed and the Grimm removed with the help of the Paladins we’ve obtained.” Cinder smiled proudly into the strange, orblike Grimm that floated before her. There was only one minor setback, where before there had been many. “However, funding is beginning to run dry more quickly than anticipated, as Torchwick has started charging double for his services now.” 

“There is a man who is skilled in turning chaos into money. He is also quite a useful specialist. He was recently in Mistral, but I will send him to you shortly.” Salem nodded, her almost ghostly visage reaching out a hand to Cinder, as if to cross through the distance between them. “You have done well, my faithful.” 

“Thank you, my queen.” Cinder bowed, a rare and genuine smile growing across her face. Salem’s praise was very precious indeed. Receiving it was a feeling comparable to the enjoyment she felt when she considered the destruction that was soon to come to Vale.

“You are dismissed.” Salem ended the communication without any further comment, as was her way.

Once the seer was gone Cinder left the tent she had been made to set herself up in. She intended to extract revenge on Adam for every single time she had woken up in the night. Sleeping on the hard ground was something she had never gotten used to, no matter how many times it happened. Even with a sleeping bag. The White Fang really were distastefully uncivilized, perhaps the only thing she agreed with Torchwick on.

Speaking of whom, the man “coincidentally” happened to be sitting on a log as she left her tent, one of the ones that had presumably been gathered around the campfire around which dinner had been served the previous night. He was annoyingly chipper, probably to rub in the fact that he no longer slept.

“Top of the morning to you, Match Girl.” An infuriating grin was plastered across Torchwick’s face. “How go things with the boss lady?”

“You will refer to her with respect. She is a god.” Cinder glared at Torchwick. She really wished that Adam hadn’t killed the moron, so that she could have done it herself.

“Eh, if you ask me, the Vacuans had the right idea when it comes to gods. Who needs ‘em?” Torchwick shrugged without a care in the world. If he knew exactly which god Cinder served he would never date to be so nonchalant, but alas, secrecy was paramount.

“She’s the being who covers your paychecks.” Cinder quirked an eyebrow.

“That is a good point. You, however, can go fuck yourself. Probably before her altar or some shit. Whatever you get off on.” Torchwick smirked, making a lewd gesture with his hands.

“If you two are done bickering, I believe that we have matters to discuss?” Adam cleared his throat. He had shown up at some point. “I demand to know what happened to the troops you lost recently.”

“Your ex girlfriend and her gang of mini-huntresses happened. And also one hunky blond monkey boy. There was also a redhead who somehow managed to tear two ships down right out of the sky. I would have thought I was high if I wasn’t too dead for that shit.” Torchwick stayed coolly careless as his speech infuriated Adam.

“Blake is fighting her own people!” Adam drew his sword and stabbed it into the ground. “This isn’t right. She’s being manipulated. She must be. Otherwise, she would be a traitor.”

“From what I’ve heard I’m pretty sure you’re the one who was manipulating her, Alucard. And didn’t you say she was a traitor before?” 

“That was a mistake made in the heat of my anger at her abandonment.” Adam turned up his chin. “Blake would never betray me. She’s one of us, she’d dedicated to the cause. Clearly she needs to be rescued from Beacon, for her own sake.”

“We aren’t wasting our resources on one person who lives in the most heavily protected building in Vale.” Cinder cut in before these idiots could go any further. “When everything comes to fruition you will be free to seek her out and reclaim her in whatever fashion you wish, but until then, you keep your damn head low and make sure Sienna Khan has no idea what you’re doing as you recruit manpower. How is the project at Mountain Glenn?” 

“Everything is on schedule.” Adam growled. “But the longer she’s there the more-”

“Shut up. Which is more important, our goal, or one person?” Cinder rebutted.

“What even is our goal here? Some of the shit you guys are ordering for Mountain Glenn is just weird.” Torchwick, always sticking his nose in matters that don’t concern him.

“All that concerns you is that you get your pay. You need only follow your instructions. We’re done here.” Cinder got up and started walking to the place she had arranged to meet with her transportation back to Vale.

“I don’t appreciate your attitude young woman.” Torchwick hovered behind her, just a few inches above the ground as she stalked away from him. “In my day people like you explained their plans to their elders.”

“You’re in your fucking thirties. Fuck off!” Cinder was very tempted to get a large bag of purified salt to throw at the man like he was a dog or something when he wouldn’t go away. He had already been insufferable when he was alive, now that he had no fear of death he was downright infuriating.

“Really?” Roman brought his hands up to his face. “My skincare routine really was doing wonders. I died at forty-three.”

Cinder took it as an opportunity to get the hells away from the man.


	20. Yang and Ruby Get Some Pussy

###### Weiss

Weiss was in the process of writing an essay on the economic and practical intricacies by which fire dust and its derivative compounds and fusions could be supplemented by other dust types not dependent on fire dust, or by nondust chemical compounds when Blake got back from a class of her own. Coal was the resource primarily used in situations where dust was too volatile, such as to infuse metals with dust, and occasionally as an emergency power source or to cook in places without easy access to dust supply lines, but it polluted far too much to be used for any mass production effort, or mass power generation, not to mention being far less efficient than lightning dust. Xe was jolted from xyr work by Blake’s hands resting on xyr shoulders.

“Care to take a break from that?” Something about Blake’s voice sent a shiver down Weiss’ shoulders. That husky tone was nearly familiar, thanks to the few, very memorable times that she had used it thus far.

“No actually, I quite enjoy writing essays.” Weiss believed that xe knew exactly what Blake was suggesting, and xe intended to draw it out.

“Weiss.” Blake’s voice lilted gently as she whispered into xyr ear. “Do I really need to ask now, when we’re dating?”

“First of all, we have yet to go on a date.” Weiss found xyrself suddenly irritated for no good reason. Xe was the one who was turning down Blake’s ideas for the past two days.

“And who’s the one who keeps saying that they have too much work to do whenever I suggest a picnic?” Blake frowned, and her ears drooped slightly. She picked nervously at a fingernail.

“You don’t sleep, you have all the time in the world to complete your assignments. My course load is heavy and I have no such luxuries.” Weiss crossed xyr arms.

“Look, is something wrong?” Blake took her hands off of Weiss. “It feels like you’ve been using school work as an excuse to avoid a date.”

“Am I?” Weiss was completely pulled from thinking about xyr essay. It was admittedly possible that xe had largely neglected to spend much free time around Blake recently. And that xe was suddenly doing assignments further in advance than ordinary. “I suppose that I may be doing that.”

“It’s okay if I’m not really good enough or something, although I do sort of still need blood.” Blake retreated a few steps away from Weiss, her posture rapidly shrinking.

“No!” Weiss turned around in shock, only to see Blake flinch at xyr sudden volume. “I mean, no. That isn’t the case at all. I’ve clearly made a mistake of some kind. You are wonderful, and I could never think that way about you. Allow me to ask you out on a date, I’d like to make up for my foolishness. Saturday evening? When I make an arrangement, I fulfill it.”

“I... yeah. Alright. I think it’s worth a shot.” Blake shook her head as if to clear it, but her stance stayed tense, ears perked in a way that wasn’t happy. 

“Did I scare you?” A sudden spike of self-loathing pierced Weiss’ heart.

“Not exactly. I just... got spooked. Shouting is...” Blake swallowed, unable to look at Weiss.

“I feel that way about being shouted at as well, actually. I should have known better, I’m sorry.” Weiss couldn’t help remembering times that xyr father had shouted at xyr.

“It’s okay. I was being dumb, and I guess you just really wanted to compliment me.” Blake chuckled dryly, then took a seat on her bed. “I am still thirsty, but I feel like I need to wait a few minutes for this adrenaline to go away.”

“As do I.” Weiss saved the text document that was open on her scroll and closed it, then looked at Blake carefully. “Shall we wait together?”

“If you like.” Blake smiled faintly at the prospect, and Weiss hurried to her side. 

Weiss nestled xyrself in next to blake, letting their shoulders and legs make contact as xe leaned against her. As xe did so, xe managed to calm slightly, and further when Blake held xyr hand. The opportunity to have these small moments of physical closeness was such a new thing, just how comfortable it was kept taking xyr by surprise.

Blake wrapped an arm around Weiss’s shoulders and they stayed like that for a few minutes, listening to the sounds of each other’s breathing. Finally, she sighed heavily and looked Weiss in the eye. “Feeling better?”

“Yes.” Weiss felt much more prepared to melt into Blake’s arms than xe had been when she first came in. Xe was truly beginning to crave it at times, along with the experience of having xyr blood drunk.

“Good, me too.” Blake reached a hand up and cupped Weiss’ cheek, a familiar action. She waited for a brief moment, and xe closed the distance between them with a kiss. 

“I don’t know why I’ve been unknowingly avoiding this.” Weiss smiled as xe let xyr cheek rest against Blake’s.

“We all need our space sometimes. I’m just glad that after that’s happened, we can still trust each other.” Blake nibbled Weiss' cheek gently, and started to trail her way to xyr collar.

“Oh no you don’t, I demand further lip service.” Weiss brought Blake’s head up with a guiding hand at her chin. Xe kissed her again, letting it get deeper as she wrapped her arms around xyr. As xe released the kiss, xe heard a very small sound that could perhaps only be described as a mewl.

“Weisss.” Blake’s tone was planitive as she tried to kiss Weiss again, only to be gently turned away. A beautiful sound.

“Yes?” Weiss smirked. Xe could certainly get used to this. “Please correct me if I’m wrong, but you appear to be enjoying this, especially when I make you stop before you want to.”

“I am.” Blake blushed violently.

“Excellent.” Weiss kissed xyr girlfriend again. Xyr tongue cautiously slipped out and rubbed against Blake’s lips, which parted with a soft moan. Her tongue fluttered attentively about her mouth as Weiss took xyr time to explore, sending a shiver of warmth down Weiss’ spine.

Blake’s fingers dug tightly into Weiss’ shoulders as she pulled them closer, further deepening the kiss at the same time. It wasn’t until xe relented slightly and ended the kiss that she started working her way down to xyr neck.

“That’s right, you can go ahead and latch onto my neck now.” Weiss ran xyr fingers through Blake’s long black hair. The change in intent did nothing to cool xyr down from a heated state. Letting her drink xyr blood was an intoxicating experience, and incredibly intimate.

As always, Blake took her sweet time, despite the thirst that was most likely still building in her. She showered Weiss’ collar and the underside of xyr chin in kisses before moving on to lick, suck, and gently nibble xyr neck. 

Every movement, every touch was hot, making Weiss want more as xe lovingly threaded xyr hands through Blake’s hair and rubbed her back in encouragement. Having her come from a low angle with Weiss still sitting up provided an excellent view of the Bellabooty as her body fidgeted with need. “Whenever you’re ready.”

A brief moment of sharp pain was quickly followed by pleasure as Blake bit into her snack. Both of them moaned, though she was muffled by the soft flesh and hot blood that tricked into her mouth while Weiss was happy to cry out eagerly, if softly, as the familiar rush flowed through xyr veins.

As always, Blake’s departure felt as if it came far too soon, but Weiss used the moment to xyr advantage and pulled her down to lay in bed beside xyr, spooning in the afterglow. Xe wrapped xyr arms around her belly, and used xyr new position as the big spoon to appreciate Blake’s neck in turn, peppering short kisses against the back of her head beneath the hair.

“Sometimes it feels like I could lay here like this forever.” Blake sighed happily.

“I concur.” Weiss’ hands worked their way up into Blake’s hair, and a sudden thought occurred to xyr. “May I touch your ears?”

“You may, but be careful. They’re pretty sensitive, and the insides are an erogenous zone.” Blake squirmed, even though Weiss hadn’t even done anything yet.

“Oh really? And you’re saying that I may touch the inside as well, if I wish?” Weiss teased as xe took xyr time, scratching Blake’s scalp, letting her relax.

“Yes.” Blake’s face wasn’t visible as she said it, but Weiss could tell from the way that she squirmed and her ears twitched that she was embarrassed.

It was extraordinarily gratifying to finally reach the base of Blake’s ears. She moaned as Weiss scripted carefully all around them, then tentatively trailed a finger along the outside. The fur was as soft as any cat’s, and xe adored the way that Blake reacted to xyr touch with every new millimeter that xyr finger traveled. 

“You can be a little bit rougher.” Blake’s voice was high as she turned around and buried her face against Weiss’ chest, making for an even better angle by which to reach her ears.

“Is that a request I hear?” Just the slightest touch of fingernails against the outside of Blake’s ears drew forth a sweet moan. It made Weiss wonder what was going to happen when xe reached the inside of the ears. Xe decided to find out, trailing xyr index finger along the soft pink interior of her ear.

“Ahhh.” Blake moaned as her head reflexively arched back.

“Brothers you’re beautiful.” Weiss was exhilarated. Blake was putty in xyr hands, and xe loved it.

After a little bit of further petting, Blake turned herself back over onto her back. “Cool down.” She settled back against Weiss’ chest with a sigh. 

“Fair enough.” Weiss was certainly disappointed, and still more than a little bit riled up, but having Blake calmly rest in xyr lap was a pleasure all it’s own.

“That was _very_ hot.” Blake’s ears flicked happily and she interlaced her fingers with Weiss’.

“I do believe that I look forward to the next time you need blood.” Weiss absently rubbed xyr neck. There was something incredibly satisfying and intimate about it.

“No need to wait until then.” Blake kissed the hand in her own. “I’m very excited about that date you’ve promised me.”

“As you should be. A Schnee does not take half measures.” Weiss chuckled.

###### Ruby

On Thursday, Yang took Ruby out on their first date. She insisted on keeping it a surprise, and also that Ruby couldn’t bring her new chainsaw hand in case they got attacked by ninjas. She really needed an opportunity to test it out already. Oh well, the excitement induced by the former point more than made up for the disappointment of the latter.

Ruby had nothing but lewd thoughts on her mind as she walked through Vale with Yang. She wanted Yang to kiss her cheek, hold her hand, touch her wings, whisper in her ear, call her cute, hug her tight, princess carry her, brush her hair, talk about feelings...

“We’re here.” Yang gently brought Ruby out of her thoughts by rubbing her thumb along the inside of Ruby’s palm. 

It took a moment for Ruby to turn her attention to her surroundings, mostly because she was busy experiencing yet another moment of rapturous surprise at the fact that this was actually happening. They were in a sort of residential part of Vale, and Yang seemed to be indicating a small cafe situated under a block of apartments. A sign with a crescent moon made out of stars hung above the entrance, declaring its name. A Cat’s Paw.

“Ooooooo, I love food.” Ruby meant it, and nothing could possibly quash her excitement about this, but the moment she said it she got worried that it seemed completely flat.

“Trust me, I noticed.” Yang chuckled. “But this isn’t just any cafe.”

“Huh?” As they approached the cafe, Ruby managed to see into the building a little bit better. Instead of tables with chairs at them like a normal cafe, the tables were fairly low to the ground, and most of them sat next to couches or beanbag chairs. She instantly appreciated it, her mind instantly jumping to the opportunities that she could have to cuddle with Yang while she drank hot chocolate. 

Then a cute little face pressed against the window and she squealed in excitement. “Cats! And food! Yang, you’re a genius!” Ruby jumped the small distance between her and Yang to wrap her girlfriend in a huge tackle hug.

“Nah, the real geniuses are the people who run this place.” Yang squeezed Ruby tight anyway, then started laughing before she could even get out the pun. “I’m just out to get some pussy.”

“I didn’t know Blake was coming with us.” Ruby snorted with laughter and kissed Yang very quickly before jumping back down to the ground. It was a good foot long fall. “Unless you plan on hitting on a waitress.”

“Huh?” Yang tilted her head in a moment of confusion. “Ohhhh.”

“Yang, did you just forget that I’m trans?” Ruby giggled, only a little bit at Yang’s expense. It mostly just made her love Yang even more than she had before.

“Maaaaaybe.” Yang whistled nonchalant, then started abruptly walking into the cafe. “Anyway, let’s go!”

“Yes, yes, yesyesyes.” Ruby trailed slightly behind Yang, hoping that she would take on the responsibility of dealing with getting them seated. To her surprise however, there was just a sign at the front that asked people to take a seat wherever they liked. She liked everything about this place so far. The inside was decorated with cozy light floral couches, white furniture and cat toys and structures that were scattered about, along with the cats themselves. 

“Couch?”

Ruby nodded and let Yang guide her to a seat as she absorbed as many details of her surroundings as she could. There were at least eight cats around the place, most of them interacting with people. There weren’t any servers at all when they came in, but as she sat on a couch that faced away from the outside and snuggled comfortably into Yang, someone in slightly worn blue jeans and a white blouse walked through a brown door with a porthole that probably led to the kitchen.

“Hey, I haven’t seen you two before. Name’s Sam, they/them.” Sam grinned as they handed them two menus. “What can I do ya for today?”

As soon as the menu was in her sight Ruby started reading through it, ignoring the coffee and focusing on what kinds of pastries and quiches they had. She already knew she was getting hot chocolate with it, that and, as Yang had said, some pussy.

“Ruby.” Something poked Ruby’s shoulder.

“Hmm?” Ruby looked up at Yang. Sam had already disappeared somewhere.

“Cat.” Yang gestured to her lap, upon which rested a rusty red cat, curled into a ball. “Sam said her name’s Mason.”

“Caaaaaaat.” Ruby immediately forgot about the menu’s existence and reached out to pet the cat. “Good girl.” She ran her hand over the soft fur happily. Cat. She would honestly be content to do this for hours, or at least minutes, which sometimes felt like hours. “Getting pet by tons of people must be really nice.”

“Oh really?” Yang rested an elbow on the top of the couch and started petting Ruby as she pet the cat. “How do you feel about this then?”

“Mmmm, that’s good stuff.” Ruby leaned into the petting as she pet Mason. “Although I think you’re probably the only person who gets to pet me.” She paused momentarily in thought. “Or maybe Blake and Weiss. Or Nora or Pyrrha.”

“Why them?”

“I...” Ruby suddenly tensed, struck by sudden anxiety. “Never mind.” Without realizing it, she stopped petting.

As if aware of Ruby’s state, Mason got up from Yang’s lap and crawled over to Ruby, then headbutted her chest with a meow. Another cat climbed into her previous place in Yang’s lap, this one spotted with black and white. Then another one jumped on top of the couch and draped itself across Yang’s neck.

“I guess this is my life now.” Yang turned her head and stared at the black cat that was very close to her face. It stared back.

Ruby giggled at Yang as mason started licking her hand. The rough texture of the tongue on her hand was really interesting, enough to distract her from the thing that she knew she really should say but didn’t want to. “Blake should change her username, you’re the real pussy magnet.”

“I’m basically a space heater to them.” Yang was smiling as widely as Ruby. Who wouldn’t be delighted to be surrounded by cats?

“We do adoptions, if you’re interested.” Sam had reappeared as they were distracted, and now cockily watched, waiting for their orders. “And if you promise to stop making bad cat puns, this is supposed to be a family friendly establishment.” Counterintuitively, their grin seemed to be egging on further puns.

“A-dop-tion?” Ruby split the word into its syllables as she said it, slowly turning to look at Yang with wide eyes. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Don’t look at me like that. We can’t, pets definitely aren’t allowed in the dorm.” Yang shook her head reluctantly, a slight tint of guilt in her voice.

“I bet I could get permission though, as a support animal.” Ruby kept staring hopefully. “Normally people use dogs, but I’m actually scared of dogs, because of the barking and the teeth and the messiness.”

“If you get permission I guess we’ll have to ask Blake and Weiss about it, but that does sound like a really good idea.” Yang nodded contemplatively.

“That would be so amazing.” Ruby slightly displaced Morgan from her lap as she stretched up and gave Yang a quick kiss. “I really can’t describe how helpful I think having a cat would be.”

Sam cleared their throat. “Anyway, are you ready to order?”

Yang scrambled to order some coffee and quiche, but Ruby had trouble getting the words for her order out between peals of laughter. Something about watching Yang order food with a cat wrapped around her neck like a travel pillow was far, far too funny. Eventually Yang stepped in for her and correctly guessed that she wanted a hot chocolate and strawberry scone, to which she nodded, still laughing.

Yang casually wrapped her arm around Ruby’s shoulder once she had stopped laughing. “I love your laugh.”

“Well I love your everything.” Ruby let her head rest against Yang’s shoulder, happy to sit like this in the presence of three cats and someone she loved until food came. “Sometimes so much it hurts.”

“Is there anything I can do about that?”

“No, but thanks for asking.” Ruby turned her head a little bit and kissed Yang on the cheek, only barely avoiding the cat still draped over her. The atmosphere of the cafe and Yang’s embrace were so comfortable she almost felt as if she could just fall asleep at any moment.

“Not even this?” Yang brought up her hand and started scratching Ruby’s scalp.

“Ohhh, that is really nice. You should do this regularly.” In that moment Ruby desperately wished that she could purr. She settled for enjoying the purring of the cats basking in Yang’s warmth.

###### Blake

“Hey Blake, can you turn people into vampires?” Ruby asked the question out of nowhere that evening after dinner, as they were cleaning dishes. Blake had been expecting something when she took off her headphones, but that was not it.

“No, but trust me, even if I could, you probably don’t want that.” Blake shook her head. She was pretty okay with the fact that she was a vampire these days, but the fact that when she’d first been turned she’d been thirsty enough to kill made deliberately turning someone out of the question. 

“Well, I mean, I’m not really asking for me.” Ruby fidgeted slightly. “I was more sort of thinking, if you turned Yang she could drink my blood because I might sort of have a thing for that.”

Blake couldn’t help laughing just a little bit at Ruby’s admission. It was sweet, in a kinky, too much information kind of way. 

“I can hear you two! I do not appreciate learning these things about Ruby’s private interests.” Weiss glared at them both from xyr deak.

“Oh shush, you’re hella into getting your blood drunk.” Blake winked at Weiss, who blushed and turned away.

“That doesn’t mean that I must flaunt it about so carelessly.”

“I think that it’s perfectly healthy to be honest about that sort of thing with your close friends.”

“You are aware that I have difficulties with such... openness.” Weiss sighed.

“I know.” Blake walked over to Weiss and started to massage xyr shoulders reassuringly. “I want to help with that, so I push you a little sometimes. Is that okay?”

Weiss relaxed a little bit into the touch. “As long as you’re honest about it, I suppose. And do not expect me to succeed when you test me.” 

“Good. Now, maybe you could indulge Ruby a little bit and have a nice chat about vampires? I’ll take care of the rest of the dishes.” Blake waved Ruby towards Weiss. 

“I am really curious about what it’s like.” Ruby looked at Weiss with wide eyes. “Please? I also really like getting an excuse not to do dishes.”

“Very well.” Weiss gave a long-suffering sigh. “But only because you,” xe pointed at Blake, “are willing to go so damn far to help me and Ruby.”

“That’s the spirit.” Blake patted Weiss’ head once before taking Ruby’s place in the kitchenette doing dishes. “We’ll make a friendly person out of you yet.”

“So what’s the buildup like?” Ruby was shedding rose petals and vibrating in place as she stood attentively next to Weiss.

“The buildup?” Blake could hear the growing concern in Weiss’ voice.

“Err, what’s the word?” Ruby paused a moment, then snapped her fingers. “Foreplay!”

“It is not foreplay because we do not have sex!” Weiss squealed indignantly.

“Oh. That’s too bad.” Pause. “But there is some stuff that goes down before she gets to chowing down on the Kool-aid?”

Blake slapped a slightly soapy hand over her mouth as she doubled over with barely suppressed laughter. Somewhere in the back of her mind she developed a dreadful fear that she would taste Kool-aid the next time she drank Weiss’ blood.

“If you ever call it that again I will kill you in your sleep.”

“No you won’t.” Ruby called Weiss’ bluff like a champ.

“Try me.” Weiss could barely even make it sound like a convincing bicker, much less a threat.

“I’ll avoid it if you tell me what you do before you get down to business.” 

“Fine. The first time she pinned me against the bathroom wall and did it in the middle of the night because she was starving. When it is no longer a spontaneous act, we have taken it to my bed.” 

“Weiss, you do realize that that totally makes it sound like you’re having sex, right? Also, damn, that’s really hot.”

“It is extraordinarily hot. And once she has me pinned somewhere, but before she bites me, she showers my neck in kisses and soft nibbles until I relax.” A rare note of warmth crept into Weiss’ voice, making Blake smile.

“Gosh, neck kisses are wonderful. I really need to ask Yang to give me a hickey sometime.” 

“They are. I appreciate them a great deal, as they served to make me much more comfortable with the process.”

Blake made sure to make careful note of that, and planned to ask Weiss if she could give xyr a hickey on their date. Xe would probably refuse, but it was worth a shot.

“What’s it like when she actually bites you? Does it hurt at first?”

“Yes actually. There’s a sharp pain when she first bites down that’s quickly replaced with pleasure.”

“That’s so unfairly hot.” Ruby whined. “Blake, if you ever need extra blood, please use me.”

“I feel like that could be interpreted as you cheating on Yang, and me cheating on Weiss.” Blake wasn’t strictly against the idea. She didn’t mind doing that kind of favor for Ruby, as long as it wasn’t misconstrued.

“Not if they know about it and are okay with it it’s not.” Ruby pointed out helpfully.

“True, true.” Blake tried not to contemplate the idea too hard.

Weiss cleared xyr throat. “I find this to be acceptable, though if possible I would like to chaperone. I can accept that such a thing may be necessary in an emergency or combat situation.”

“‘Chaperone,’ hmmm?” Blake teased gently.

“I resemble that implication.” Weiss’ glare could be felt on Blake’s back.

“Are you saying that you admit it?” Ruby giggled. “Good job Weiss! We’re not so different, you and me. Doesn’t it feel nice to be able to talk about it?”

“It is a topic that I suppose I could stand to discuss further, given that I-” Weiss’s voice suddenly cracked. “I trust all of you.”

Blake immediately dried her hands on the towel now that she had finished cleaning, and rushed over to Weiss, who was no longer even looking at xyr scroll. She felt that she needed to be there to support Weiss immediately.

However, Ruby was already there, and was hugging xyr close. “Really?”

“Truly.” Slowly, Weiss reciprocated the hug. “All of you have done nothing but support me since I’ve had the strength to be honest with you.” Xe released a muffled sob.

“Like I said before Weiss, I can tell you’re a really good person, and I’m gonna love you unconditionally.” Ruby patted Weiss’ back, only for her hand to be pressed down by Blake joining the hug.

“Me too Weiss. Although I don’t want to say it in so many words because of the different connotation.” Blake reached down, holding both of Weiss’ hands.

“How could I possibly deserve something like that?” Weiss leaned xyr head against Blake’s chest and let out a choked sob.

“Everybody deserves unconditional love.” Ruby frowned.

“Weiss, yesterday you told me that there was no such thing as not good enough. Are you a hypocrite?” Blake gently whispered in Weiss’ ear.

“No.” Weiss chuckled bitterly. “How dare you turn my own words back upon me.”

“I’ll do anything, as long as I can get the message into your obstinate head.” Blake hugged Weiss tighter.

After a while, Weiss’ sobs died down, but she didn nothing to end the group hug. When Yang came into the room, she joined the hug without comment.


	21. Things Better Left Unknown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here we have it folks. This is the chapter I've been planning since the entire fic started. Strap in, strap on, and get ready for your heart to get bitch-slapped to death.

###### Yang

On Friday night, Ruby managed to talk everyone into a movie night. Weiss took a little bit of nudging, but the moment Blake mentioned that if it was a scary movie she might need comforting xe changed xyr tune. Ruby nodded in frantic agreement with the sentiment, although Yang suspected that Ruby was the one who was going to get scared and enjoy the consequences.

Once Ruby had shared a list of trigger warnings from her selection, but not the title of the movie, and gotten everyone’s approval there was no turning back. Somehow, Blake managed to acquire a small projector from the library, and they moved a bed into the middle of the room to lie on like a couch as they projected the movie onto a wall.

“Blake, your powers of cat burglary never cease to amaze me.” Yang pantomimed tipping a hat to her best friend.

“All I did was check it out from the library like a normal person. You’re the one who’s too much of a dumbass to think of these things.” Blake rolled her eyes.

“I am a regular savant, thank you. Have you forgotten just how quickly I’m catching up in all of my classes? I’ve got all A’s, except in Advanced Dust Studies.” 

“Don’t worry Yang, I’m the same way. We can be idiots with no common sense together.” Ruby posed dramatically on top of her bunk bed.

“But then who’s going to take care of responsible things?” Yang laughed. “And come on, I’m not that bad.”

“Oh really?” Blake threw one of the pillows she was transporting to the makeshift couch at Yang. “Who forgot to bring water on a mission that had us hiking twenty-five miles through the mountains? Then proceeded to pretend everything was fine until she collapsed from heat stroke?”

“I didn’t want to bother anyone.” Yang mumbled in embarrassment. “I could have made it.”

“You almost died you idiot.” Blake rolled her eyes. There wasn’t any anger lingering after the event, it had all come out the moment Yang had recovered.

“Okay, okay. I’m an idiot sometimes, I get it. But so are you.” Yang grinned devilishly. “What about the time you thought my boobs were watermelons during a dream?”

“Can you blame me when they’re the same size, and just as juicy?” Blake just shrugged as Ruby burst into laughter in the background, and Weiss may have stifled a short giggle. 

Yang sighed and gave up. She never won against Blake like this. Still, there would be some kind of retribution, given that she had a reputation to uphold.

“Alright, let’s get down to business.” Weiss put the finishing touches on the pseudo-couch made out of xyr bed using pillows and blankets, then flopped into it, beckoning to Blake.

“Yeet!” Ruby jumped down onto Yang’s shoulders with a shout, wrapping her legs around her neck. “Hell yeah!”

“You’re the one who knows what movie we’re watching.” Yang rolled her eyes and carefully extracted her girlfriend from her near choke hold.

“Oh yeah.” Ruby did a backflip to the projector and turned it on, then opened a file on her scroll. “Aaaand, there. Let’s all enjoy this timeless classic. Evil Dead Two.”

“I haven’t seen the original?” Blake took a comfortable seat next to Weiss, not seeming to care all that much.

“Don’t worry, this one stands alone.” Ruby jumped in next to Yang as the opening credits started to play, showing a group of teenagers driving into a cabin in the woods for a weekend of partying. She didn’t waste any time in snuggling up against Yang, seemingly paying more attention to her than the movie.

Yang decided to go ahead and steal a kiss right then, before Ruby could have an opportunity to focus on the movie. Ruby’s lips were so soft and inviting every time, Yang just couldn’t seem to get enough of them. When Ruby’s tongue cautiously swiped out, Yang obliged, and opened her mouth to let Ruby explore for herself. 

Ruby was slow and methodical, gradually drawing her tongue over every inch of Yang’s mouth. They moaned together as they mixed saliva, sending warm shivers down Yang’s back.

“You two have no restraint.” Weiss groused, and shook xyr head. 

“They probably don’t, but I have some restraints that they’re welcome to borrow if they like.” Blake smirked evilly as she nudged Weiss.

“Asjsdkgadfgadfg.” Ruby broke the kiss and started stammering cutely as she looked first at Blake in confusion, then expectantly at Yang.

“Blake, stop teasing three people at once.” Yang rolled her eyes and pulled Ruby into her lap. The offer was genuine, but Blake was just making it like this to mess with everyone. 

“Me? Messing with people? Never.” Blake smirked and turned her attention back to the movie.

For a while, Ruby was content to stay in Yang’s lap and watch the buildup to the movie’s horror. The cabin had some evil book in it, and strange things started happening once a recording of an archaeologist said an ominous incantation out loud. When the first hapless teenager was dragged offscreen by an undead monster, Ruby squeaked in fear and squeezed Yang’s hand hard. Blake made a similar sound and buried her head against Weiss’ shoulder, leaving only a pair of twitching cat ears visible.

“Oh come on, it’s not that scary. It’s mostly just cheezy.” Yang nearly laughed at the copious amounts of obviously fake blood and gore on the screen as the main character watched the corpse of his friend kill his girlfriend.

“Yeah, but I’m sad ‘cause I want everyone to be okay.” Ruby pouted and nuzzled against Yang’s chest.

“And I _am_ scared, thank you very much.” Blake’s voice was slightly muffled, and Weiss was actually scratching her behind the ears as she cowered.

“A perfectly understandable sentiment.” Weiss glared slightly at Yang in defense of xyr girlfriend.

“I never said anything to the contrary.” Yang smirked and ran a hand along the outside of Ruby’s wings as she pressed Ruby’s head into her cleavage with the other.

“No restraint at all.” Weiss shook xyr head, but couldn't seem to look away, so Yang just winked.

“Enjoying the view?”

“Shut up.” With great effort, Weiss directed xyr attention to the movie.

“It’s great.” Ruby shot the room a general thumbs up, now buried happily in Yang’s chest.

The rest of the movie went by similarly, with frequent cuddling, cowering, kissing, petting, and teasing between the four of them, the movie itself largely overlooked, save to laugh at or as an excuse for more cuddling.

“So that’s it?” Weiss stared at the end of the movie in confusion. “He just gets pulled into this mysterious portal?”

“There’s another movie where he lands in the past. It’s even funnier than this one.” Ruby didn’t budge from Yang’s lap as the credits started to roll. “Army of Darkness.”

“At least now I understand why you wanted to make a chainsaw hand.” Blake didn’t let go of Weiss either.

“I know, right.” Ruby eyes sparkled beautifully with excitement.

“Hey, Ruby.” Slowly, almost reverently, Yang turned Ruby’s chin to face her.

“Hmmm?” Ruby raised an eyebrow curiously.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Yang kissed Ruby for the millionth time that night. Through that stretch of time, she poured as much of her love into the kiss as she could. She thought about the way that Ruby was constantly supporting everyone around her as well as she could, her enthusiasm and energy, the cute way that she laughed, her insistent positivity when it was most needed. She loved Ruby so fucking much, and the best she could express it was with a kiss. The most gentle kiss she could give.

When they both opened their eyes again, Ruby was crying, and she clung to Yang like she had no intention of ever letting go.

###### 

The morning after movie night felt oddly normal. Aside from the face that Ruby had slept next to Yang, cuddled together in her bed, everything was perfectly ordinary. Sleeping was all they had done, and yet somehow Yang had felt like a giddy kid on their birthday as she watched Ruby dozing against her, still asleep.

It felt strange just how quickly and brilliantly Ruby had managed to worm her way into Yang’s heart. And now they were considering adopting a cat together. And Yang was severely in love. If she hadn’t had a peacefully sleeping Ruby on her chest, Yang would have started laughing for no real reason. It was almost like a romance novel, with how quickly it felt things had happened. Then again, Yang didn’t much care for taking her time when rushing ahead blindly would do the trick.

Now a bit of time had passed after breakfast, and Weiss had dragged a desperately pouting Ruby away to the library for procrastinating too hard on an essay about dust. Yang just lay in her bed, contemplating as she listened to the comfortable sound of Blake reading.

From thoughts of Ruby Yang’s mind drifted to idly wondering if her mom would be happy about the situation between them. It was painfully obvious that Raven didn’t want to be around Ruby, and that sentiment presumably extended to Summer as well. Yang wasn’t going to stop loving Ruby, but it would be awful if her mom never visited her because of who she was involved with. There had to be some way to resolve the issue.

With a sudden sense of growing dread, Yang realized that she had a way to do just that in her pocket. Or at least a way to gain some degree of insight. Warnings of things better left unknown be damned, she was done letting her mom and Ruby’s parents wallow in whatever shit they had between them. With a flourish, she pulled out the letter and opened it along the seal. It was time to get these fools to make up, using every last tool and trick and piece of information she had.

_Yang,_

_So, you’ve finally decided that you care who your father is, have you? Very well._

_Everything began when your uncle and I decided to go to Beacon Academy. At first we only did it because we were told to by the small time bandit clan we’d managed to get into at a young age. How we ended up with them doesn’t matter. We passed the exams and got in on generous scholarships, planning to partner up with each other. Instead, I got stuck with a woman named Summer Rose as my partner, and Qrow with Taiyang Xiao Long. We were team STRQ, led by Summer._

_Summer is a special woman. She managed to keep the four of us together through four years of academics, and it took a long time before Qrow and I could even begin to tolerate being around the two of them all the time. We ended up abandoning the bandits to become hunters with their support. But still, they were so happy, so often, it terrified me. I never really understood how anyone could be so happy with their life until I started raising you._

_By the time we graduated, we were inseparable friends, as strange as that may sound. We were already renowned, and were supposedly one of the strongest teams ever to graduate. Most teams don’t really stick together, but we did. I ended up falling in love with Tai. Or at least, I thought that I did. Looking back, it’s hard to say, though that might just be because of my bitterness towards him._

_Tai is your father. I swear. But he’s also a human. I don’t know how you’re a Faunus, but it’s the truth. Tai didn’t believe me. When you were born, he kicked me out, and he didn’t even have the decency to tell me himself. He made Summer do it for him. We got into a fight, and I left. Summer had said that I should probably come back after he’d had a week to calm down, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. Tai had made his choice, and he chose to disbelieve me and kick me out._

_I always knew Summer had feelings for him as well. We argued with each other because I knew that the baby she had at the time was his, and I was sure that she was manipulating him. I was incorrect about the latter, but not the former._

_If for some reason you care to find him, I doubt that his address has changed. It’s on an island called Patch, near Vale._

Yang couldn’t read any farther. She was interrupted by her churning stomach loudly emptying its contents all over the letter and her bed. She was madly in love with her own sister. Half sister. Not that it made a difference. 

“Yang?” Blake had heard her throw up, of course, and now she looked on in horror. “What’s wrong?” Yang had never had a reaction this visceral before. She had never been shocked like this before.

Without daring to look Blake in the eye, Yang got up from her bed and stumbled to the bathroom on shaking legs, the letter still grasped in her vomit-stained hands. Robotically, she washed her hands, and tore the letter into pieces in doing so, then kneeled down over the toilet and started throwing up once again. She was in love with her sister.

What the fuck was wrong with her?

What the fuck was wrong with Taiyang? She even had a part of his name as her own, what the fuck?

She retched into the toilet again, now out of breakfast to vomit. That much was a relief, her cooking was so good it even tasted good on the way back up, and she did not deserve to taste good food. Not when she couldn’t make herself stop romantically loving her own fucking sister.

“What’s going on?” Blake’s voice rang out from a cautious distance behind Yang.

“I... urk,” Yang dry heaved again. “Pack us an overnight bag. I need to go somewhere, and find someone. And I need you to be there with me.”

“Alright.” Blake nodded, and left to clean the room.

###### 

After she was thoroughly out of things to throw up, and relatively done dry heaving, Yang realized that what she needed to do now was scream. So she went to the airport to wait for Blake to come with their overnight bag, and stood at the edge of the cliff that looked down over the rest of Vale, and screamed.

Following a few minutes of screaming, her voice started getting tired. So she raised up her hands away from the cliff and started shooting gouts of fire forth from them using her fire dust to augment the screaming. 

“I got stuff.” Blake stepped next to Yang and held up a fairly stuffed backpack, seemingly unfazed by the fire.

“Alright. Let’s go.” Yang nodded, and stopped using dust, surprised to find that her hands were covered in blisters that would probably take a few hours to heal. It did make sense that she wasn’t in a state to use dust safely. “And not a word about where we’re going or what we’re doing to Ruby or Weiss. Only that we’re alive and will be gone indefinitely.”

“Indefinitely?” Blake’s eyes widened, but she didn’t say anything.

“If I’m right, if what I read is right, I don’t know how long it’s going to be before I can come back.” Yang wished that it was wrong. She hoped that somehow her mom was lying and Tai wasn’t her biological father. But Raven probably wasn’t lying, she wouldn’t, and if he was, Yang didn’t dare be in the same room as Ruby until she had managed to bury these feelings as far away as she could. Maybe never. After all, the only thing worse than not being able to date Ruby would be if Ruby hated her for not being able to just be sisters.

“Okay.” Blake nodded. “I’m here for you, whatever’s happening.”

“Thank you.” Yang couldn’t help feeling guilty about relying on Blake like this, but there was no way she could do this alone.

###### 

The flight to Patch dragged on forever. Blake seemed to have put together that they were going to the island Ruby lived on for some reason, but she thankfully didn’t try asking why. All Yang could bring herself to say was that she would understand once they reached their destination.

Blake was also mercifully silent about the many frantic and concerned messages she was no doubt getting from Ruby and Weiss. Yang had turned off her scroll, and probably wasn’t going to turn it on for a long time. Just thinking about what Ruby may be messaging to her was almost enough for her to want to just pretend that letter had never existed and turn around forever. But that wasn’t happening, she wasn’t going to ignore this. Couldn’t ignore this.

The tortuously languid eternity Yang spent in the airship that took them to Patch ended unceremoniously. As soon as she got off the ship she started to jog, and Blake was close behind her. Yang knew exactly where she was going, there was only one house as far out of the main part of Patch as her destination, and she would inevitably get there. 

Nearly halfway to their destination, a familiar Subaru pulled up next to Yang, who didn’t stop jogging, nor look to her side, where the driver waved.

“Yang! Why are you here?” The voice of Summer Rose was enough to force Yang to look at the concerned mother driving beside her. “Ruby said that you and Blake left without an explanation.”

“I’m here to talk to Taiyang. Don’t tell Ruby what’s going on.” Yang growled, then flinched as Summer’s eyes widened in comprehension.

“Do you want a ride? It’s the least I can do.” 

“We’ll pass. Just let that asshole know I’m coming for him.” Yang didn’t look at Summer as she drove away, nor did she stop jogging.

“Was that Ruby’s mom?”

“That’s right. And Taiyang is Ruby’s dad.”

Blake didn’t say anything else, but Yang was sure that questions were beginning to resolve themselves as they grew ever closer to the home where Ruby had grown up.

###### Leonardo

“What is it, Leonardo?” The face of Jacques Schnee greeted Leo’s sight as he took a seat at his desk, having given the final order to begin the raid on the Branwen Clan.

“I’ve fulfilled your ultimatum. The Branwen Clan will be removed from Anima within the hour.” Leo interlaced his fingers against his desk. “Largely due to the contact you provided me with.”

“This news pleases me to hear, but what ultimatum? And what contact?” Jacques glared through the screen so effectively Leo was sure it was about to start icing over.

“Did you not send me an email threatening to raise dust prices if I neglected to remove them and providing me with an employee who might be used to keep Miss Malachite silent?”

“No, I did not.” Jacques frowned. “You appear to have been manipulated, however, given that the end result is the removal of the Branwen Clan, I suppose that this is acceptable. You had best ensure the security of your network in the future.”

“That is concerning.” Leo supplied a few pleasantries and ended the call as quickly as he could. There seemed to be two possibilities, either Jacques Schnee was aware that Kuokana would use illicit methods in this job, and thus distanced himself from it, or he was in fact being manipulated by a third party. But why? Removing a bandit clan could be beneficial to anyone. It was good for the entire continent.

Leo’s train of thought was interrupted by an email notification. The sender was unknown, something that shouldn’t be possible with his business account.

_Leonardo Lionheart,_

_We have access to your systems. We know where you live. We know how to kill you. If you wish to continue your tenure as headmaster of Haven, you will provide us with all the information you glean._

_You know who we are, and we are watching you._

###### Yang

The first thing Yang did when she saw Taiyang Xiao Long standing in the middle of his front yard with an expression resembling an abandoned puppy dog was draw Ember Celica and deck him across the face. “What the fuck is wrong with you!”

He at least had the decency to refrain from blocking or dodging her punch. “So, yes. I probably deserved that.”

“Of course you deserved that! Fuck you! What the fuck is wrong with you?” Yang gestured at her biological father, pantomiming as if to strangle him. “How could you just see me come into your home, know who I am, and then not mention that you’re my fucking biological father!”

“Yang,” Tai sighed, as if he was somehow being put-upon here, “I’m not your father. That’s physically impossible.”

“Well, it’s what happened, so deal with it. I don’t know what you thought of my mom when you knew each other as hunters, but she would never lie to me.” Yang crossed her arms, suddenly incredibly aware of Blake’s presence at her side. She sneaked a glance, and Blake had a look of anger to match her own directed at Tai. Not at her. Not yet, at least.

“There has to be an explanation here that isn’t me being your father. It doesn’t matter how trustworthy Raven is or isn’t, it’s just impossible. What if she’s lying to herself?”

Yang punched Tai again, this one sending him sprawling before he picked himself up, not actually hurt thanks to his aura. “You think my mother is delusional! Fuck you! Have you ever, at any point, given even the slightest consideration to thinking of ways that she might be telling the truth? Or did you just turn your back on her and do everything you could to forget how badly you fucked up!” She punched him again. Really threw her whole body into it. Gods that was satisfying.

“What ways? How could that possibly be the case?” Tai took a little bit longer to stand up that time, and his voice shook subtly.

“I don’t fucking know, you’re the one who’s had eighteen years to think about it! Maybe one of you are Faunus and you just don’t know it.” As she finished the sentence, Yang’s voice trailed off to a normal volume again. “Ruby told me that my mom and uncle both have night vision that’s just as good as Summer’s.” No, no, that wasn’t right, that was a reasonable explanation, and as every second passed it just sounded more possible. She’d come here because she wanted to be convinced that Ruby wasn’t her sister damnit.

Tai’s entire posture changed in an instant as he considered the idea. Slowly, he slumped to the ground without having to be punched again. “What have I done?”

“You’ve let your biological daughter fall in love with the daughter you raised.” Yang spit the words out bitterly. There had to be another explanation, but there probably wasn’t. “Do you know where my uncle is?”

There was barely a reaction from Tai as he listened to Yang. He looked almost dead inside. Ruby had probably told her parents that she liked Yang by the time they went to her house anyway. “He’s away on a mission. Why?”

“Clearly, if we’re going to either prove or disprove this, we need to take Raven or Qrow to a hospital and have them get their DNA tested. Since he’s out of the picture, break my aura.” Yang raised her aura and put down her fists, taking a deep breath.

“What?”

“Break my aura. My mom will portal to us to protect me and we can sort this shit out once and for all. With answers, concrete answers.” Yang spread her arms. “So come on, hit me! It’s the least you can do after all this shit. Hit me you fucking coward!”

“Yang,” for the first time in the confrontation, Blake spoke up, “are you sure you want to do this?”

“I need to know. I need to.” Without realizing it, Yang had started tearing up at some point. “I can’t just not know if the woman I love is my sister.” Her voice broke.

“Then let me break your aura, instead of this asshole.” Blake hugged Yang tightly. “Okay?”

“Okay.” The tension holding Yang up started to drain from her body. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast, what she had eaten had almost entirely been thrown up, and now it was the evening. She was so physically and emotionally drained. The entire day was probably the single worst of her life.

“I got you.” Blake caught Yang carefully and laid her on the ground. Slowly, she drew Gambol Shroud, and started stabbing Yang repeatedly.

It was perhaps the strangest sensation Yang had ever experienced, being repeatedly stabbed by someone who didn’t actually want to hurt her solely in order to break down her aura. Under any other circumstance, it would have been funny. Instead Yang just felt a sense of growing dread as she felt her aura grow ever closer to depletion. 

Finally, there was the distinctive flicker as her aura protected her against one last blow, and then vanished, depleted. Blake stepped away from her, and a dreadful, breathless, eternal moment passed in which Yang started to fear Raven wasn’t coming. Then there was the familiar sound of a portal opening and Raven stepped through with her sword drawn, eyes rapidly scanning the area, then widening in shock as she realized who was here.

“This is not the time.” Raven didn’t even bother turning her back as she opened another portal, seemingly in a hurry. She took a step forward before it had even finished opening, and Yang thought that for the first time in her life Raven looked panicked. Then the portal closed, taking the foot that was already partway through with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Congratulations to Noel from one of the discord servers I'm on for correctly guessing Yang's parentage.


	22. Memento Mori

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello, this is a shameless self-promotion, but I have begun writing a cyberpunk AU in tandem with this story. I love attention, so please read and comment if you like

###### Raven

Raven Branwen screamed. Not because her foot had been cleanly severed from her body by the forced closing of her portal, physical pain was something that barely bothered her anymore. She screamed because a part of her was dead. Vernal was dead. 

The camp had been under attack by huntsmen at the same time that she had felt Yang’s aura break, and Vernal was on the front lines as the second strongest fighter they had. And the bravest. But Lionheart’s force had been huge, and without Raven fighting the Clan didn’t stand a chance. In the end, it all came down to a choice. Yang, or Vernal and the clan? She couldn’t afford to hesitate, so she’d hurriedly kicked Daisy through a portal to Summer, where she could only hope that she would be hidden from Ozpin, and went to Yang.

As soon as she saw Tai she knew that Yang had broken her aura on purpose. So Raven immediately opened another portal, but she was too late. The moment that Vernal died was the moment the portal closed.

Raven had never experienced the death of someone she was linked to by her semblance before. In the moment that it happened, she could feel the invisible connection between them snap like a string. Vernal was connected to her by her life, love, and semblance. A part of Raven’s soul died with her, literally and metaphorically. So Raven Branwen screamed. She screamed, long and hard, and she didn’t stop screaming until the paramedics arrived and sedated her.

###### Ruby

Ruby was terrified. Absolute, undifferentiated terror. She couldn’t even get high to ease it because that only helped if she was freaking out for no reason and completely aware that there was no reason. Yang had left. The morning after saying that she loved Ruby, Yang had just... left. With no explanation, and with Blake in tow.

The only cold comfort available to her was the fact that Blake’s entire library had been left behind, meaning that she would have to come back at some point. Ruby tried to focus on that as she lay paralized in her bed, curled into a ball. Weiss, who Ruby was convinced only seemed to be doing better because xe repressed almost everything, had buried xyrself in schoolwork.

Loneliness crept into Ruby quickly on a good day. This, with only a distant Weiss and the knowledge that her girlfriend had disappeared on her for company, was comperable to torture. At some point, she realized that she could send a message and four more people would probably come rushing over to comfort her. Her scroll was so far away though. Moving was hard.

At some point there was a knock at the door. Nobody answered. Ruby was too dead to move, and Weiss was dead to the outside world. Whoever it was tried the handle, and the door happened to open.

“You guys look really not okay.” It sounded like Jaune. 

“We aren’t.” Talking was hard, so Ruby decided to give up on it at that point.

“I’m going to get the others, I’ll be right back.” Jaune left before Ruby could protest.

It probably didn’t take very long for Jaune to come back with Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren, Ruby didn’t know, she couldn’t guess the passage of time on a good day. It felt like too long. 

When they did arrive, Ren and Pyrrha went over to Weiss, and Jaune and Nora came to Ruby. 

“What’s going on? Where are Yang and Blake?” Jaune could barely look over the top of Ruby’s bed.

A wriggle of the shoulders was the closest thing Ruby could get to a shrug.

“Alright Jauney boy, move over.” Nora said, before vaulting herself into Ruby’s bed. She sat right next to Ruby and started running a hand along her back. “They’re going to come back.”

Ruby whimpered and attached herself to Nora. She felt a little bit less alone.

“There there.” Nora wrapped Ruby in a strong hug that didn’t leave enough room to move. It was perfect. “Jaune, grab whatever pillows or blankets aren’t being used.”

“Why?” Jaune hovered at the bedside.

“Ruby likes dark, enclosed spaces. So we’ll make her one.” Nora cocooned the both of them in Ruby’s blanket as she did so.

Nora smelled like citrus. Ruby liked citrus, and she instinctively tried to get closer to Nora.

When Jaune came back with blankets he shared what Pyrrha had learned about the situation from Weiss with Nora. 

“They told you that they’ll be back, so why are you having trouble?” Nora directed Ruby’s head onto a comfy pillow.

Ruby shook her head. She didn’t want to talk. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the tactile sensations of the blankets and Nora instead.

“Alright. You can not talk if you don’t want to.” Nora started adding more blankets, blocking out the light of the sun that streamed into the room through the blinds. 

Time wasn’t real, so there wasn’t any way to know how long it took for something to happen. Eventually, something did happen. Six scrolls all received the same message at the same time.

“Yang isn’t okay. Her mom is in the hospital and she’s not responding to anything. She needs help. We’re on Patch, at the only hospital.” Pyrrha dictated the message to the entire room.

It was enough to motivate Ruby out of her stupor. She and Nora hurriedly threw off the blankets and all six of them started to leave for the island of Patch.

###### Yang

Yang didn’t want to know why Raven’s portal had closed without warning. She could guess though. So instead of thinking about that she tried not to think. Everything that was happening was too painful, too much. She couldn’t handle it. She just sat there at the hospital, waiting for something, anything to happen and make things better. Instead, she got an omen that things were going to get worse.

“Yang!” A desperately familiar voice cried out to her. The last voice she needed to hear.

“Ruby.” Yang would have been completely bowled over by the ensuing tackle-hug if she had been standing. As it was, she was forcibly pushed back into her chair. “Ruby.” Her voice broke, and she returned the hug.

“IwassoscaredandworriedandI’msogladyou’reokay.” Ruby tried to bury her head against Yang, but she pushed her away slightly.

“Ruby,” Yang got the gist of what Ruby had said well enough, “I’m sorry. From now on I’ll be here forever, always by your side. Whenever you need a friend, I’ll never be far behind.”

“Friend?” Ruby recoiled. “What do you mean, friend?”

“I’m your half sister, I’m almost certain. Taiyang is my biological father.” Yang felt dead inside. This wasn’t how Ruby was supposed to find out. Why was she even here? She looked around for an explanation, instead she saw everyone else. Weiss, Pyrrha, Nora, Ren, Jaune, Summer, who had been there the entire time. They were all looking at her. “What are you looking at? Fuck off!” Her voice was venomous.

None of them moved. None of them spoke. They just looked at Yang and Ruby with a mixture of confusion, pity, and uncertainty.

“It’s okay Yang.” Blake finally spoke. “You couldn’t have known, I told them to come here to support you.”

“You’re not my sister.” Ruby desperately grabbed onto Yang. “We are not defined by our biology, we’re defined by our experiences, and we didn’t grow up together at all.”

“Don’t do this.” Yang started trying to remove Ruby from on top of her. This was worse than what she’d been afraid of. Ruby was supposed to accept that they were related and hate Yang if she ever found out that she couldn’t change her feelings. Now she was trying to say that they should be together anyway? “You’re making a mistake.”

“No, you are!” Ruby wouldn’t let go.

“Please, Ruby, I can’t do this. I love you, but I can’t be in love with you. Go, you’ve got to go.” Yang started genuinely trying to pry Ruby off of her, and after a moment she finally got the message, and vanished in a burst of rose petals.

Yang stared at the six people who remained. They stared back. Everything was horrible, and she had no reason to expect it to get better. She was starting to wonder what the point was.

“Yang Branwen?” A nurse called out her name and drew everyone’s attention. “Your mother has regained consciousness and wants to speak with you.”

“Okay.” Yang stood up. Her legs were tired, sore, and shaking. She still hadn’t eaten, and who even knew what time it was by that point. “That’s me.”

The nurse led her along dull white corridors to a room completely identical to all of the other ones in this wing of the hospital. Yang had never been to a hospital before, except to help raid medical supplies. She decided that she hated them. They were so uniform and utterly lacking in personality. Everything that she disliked.

Seeing the door indicated to her by the nurse was enough for Yang to hesitate, just for a moment. A moment of overwhelming fear that things were about to get worse. It seemed to be the theme of the day. Despite that, her hand opened the door and she started to walk in seemingly without her own input. Her mom was laying in a hospital bed, and she looked as bad as Yang had ever seen her.

“Sit.” Raven practically spat the words out, her seething anger completely unbound, but not burning violently enough to hide the hurt. 

“What happened?” Yang trembled as she sat. Not from her physical or mental exhaustion, but because for some reason, for the first time in her life, that seething anger was directed at her. She had never been afraid of own mother before, not for a second.

“Vernal is dead. Because of you.” Raven’s hand clenched as if wrapping around Omen. “We were under attack by the kingdom. If you hadn’t broken your own aura and made me choose, I could have protected her. She’s dead! Because you just had to talk to me, you selfish brat! You killed your own mother!”

“No. I... I...” Yang couldn’t speak. She had no words, no comprehension, nothing. All she could do was hurt as her mom blamed her for her other mom’s death. She heard some other noise, too. A loud rasping that filled her head as she panicked.

“I should have left you to die the last time your aura broke.” Raven turned away from Yang stiffly.

Yang’s jaw worked wordlessly. That noise kept getting louder and faster. Dark spots swam in her blurred vision as her chest heaved. Some sort of high pitched keening sound filled the room as she got increasingly lightheaded, and cut off in the instant before she lost consciousness.

###### Weiss

Never in xyr life had Weiss felt so helpless. Even at the Schnee maor, under the worst of circumstances, there were means by which to placate xyr father. This was different, there was no placation that would be anything less than an insult to Yang and Ruby and their cruel twist of fate. Xe could only watch as Ruby ran away, and her mother followed her, and Yang went to speak with her mother on trembling legs. It was hellish.

“We need to do something.” Weiss might as well have been speaking to a room full of statues. “There has to be something we can do.” Xe despised inaction and indecision.

“This is definitely a big L.” Blake stared blankly at a wall from her seat. 

“Sometimes all you can do is be present.” Ren sat down next to Blake, a slight twist of their lips serving as the only sign that they were worried. “Ruby and Yang are both around their family members now. They’ll probably want to look to them first.”

“In the meantime, can I talk to you alone for a moment Weiss?” Blake stood up and beckoned Weiss over to a more isolated corner of the hospital’s waiting room.

“Is this about our date?” Weiss scowled as xe caught the scent of someone who had recently smoked walking by.

“No, although I’m sorry about that. I was really looking forward to it.” Blake sighed.

“Don’t worry about it, a crisis takes precedence. What did you wish to discuss then?”

“Two things. First, how’s your curse doing lately?” 

“That,” Weiss clicked xyr tongue, “is difficult to ascertain. Over the past few days I have noted that what was previously brief moments of influence have entirely dissipated. In their place has come a nearly constant, yet minor pressure that I find it difficult to describe. Given the overall constructive events of the previous weekend, I suspect and hope that it is a sign of the energy dissipating in the face of my progress.”

“Well,” Blake’s face was split between a smile and a grimace, “that’s probably the best news any of us are going to get all day. Secondly, does the term Spring Maiden mean anything to you?”

“No, not at all.” Weiss quirked an eyebrow. “Why?”

“At Ruby’s home, Summer ran out into the yard just moments after Raven collapsed screaming. She offered to go to the hospital with us and told Taiyang that he needed to stay because Raven had sent them the Spring Maiden. The last part was whispered, and I overheard it because of my superior hearing.” Blake taped her human ear meaningfully.

“It sounds like the kind of thing that may have a legend attached to it. And if legends hold the importance that they appear to, it may be prudent to attempt to find such a legend, once the current crisis has been resolved. Speaking of which, did you refer to a traumatic event as a ‘big L’ a scant few moments ago?”

“Well-oh fuck!” Blake’s attention suddenly turned to something to Weiss’ side, and xe followed their gaze to see Yang, unconscious and being rolled along on a gurney. She ran over and tried to get the attention of one of the nurses with Weiss in tow. “What happened to her?”

“It appears that she had a panic attack and hyperventilated, but please stay back. She’ll be fine.” The nurse did his best to place a nearly feral Blake, and it worked as well as can be expected.

“Blake, come on. She’ll be fine, but we need to wait for her to regain consciousness.” Weiss looped Blake’s arm in xyr own and gently led her back to her seat. 

“Yeah.” Blake was pale as she started taking deep breaths. “I can’t help worrying about what happened.”

“From what I know of Raven’s semblance, I suspect that someone important may have died. The death of the subject that a portal leads to would very possibly lead to the portal becoming unsustainable.” Weiss started to gently rub Blake’s back. “She doesn’t seem like the kind of person who let that happen because of a simple mistake.”

“This is almost certainly the worst day of Yang’s life.” Blake sighed, and leaned into Weiss’ hand on her back.

“The worst day of her life so far.” Weiss gently chided.

“Did you just meme?” Blake broke out into a pained smile.

“Perhaps.” Weiss smirked. “Did it help?”

“Yeah, a bit.” Blake chucked, and shook her head.

###### Summer

Summer was in full crisis mode. She needed to take care of Ruby first, and then Yang would no doubt need someone as well. As far as she was concerned, Yang was her daughter from the moment she found out Yang and Ruby were likely half sisters after all. 

Finding Ruby wasn’t hard. She had curled up in a ball in the backseat of Summer’s car, not seemingly worried about the heat. Summer got into the driver's seat and turned on the air conditioning, and waited for Ruby to say something.

“Do you hate me too?” Ruby’s voice was small. She was still curled up in a ball. 

“I don’t hate you, and neither does Yang.” Summer gently draped her cape over Ruby. “I’m sorry that I never said anything about this mess.”

“But it doesn’t make sense. Why else would she not want to date me anymore?”

“She doesn’t want to date someone that she’s related to. It’s a common reaction.” Summer was careful to avoid saying the word normal. She would worry about Ruby and Yang’s relationship later, right now she just needed to make Ruby feel better.

“Why though?” Ruby whined.

“You’ll have to ask her.” Summer gently rubbed Ruby’s back. “It’s okay, whatever happens it’s okay. We both love you.”

“You promise?” Ruby poked her head out of the cloak. “Even though I’m so... me?”

“Ruby Rose,” Summer adopted a stern countenance, “I love you because of how incredibly you you are. You are a wonderful young woman. Now go talk to Yang and work something out.” 

“Okay.” Ruby wrapped the cloak around her shoulders. “I’m keeping this for a while though.”

###### Raven

The most terrifyingly beautiful thing about Summer Rose was her temper, or rather, her complete lack of one. Summer didn’t get angry, not with people. Her anger was reserved solely for the Grimm. No, she got disappointed. That liquid silver eye of hers bore straight into your soul until all but the most cruel of living things drowned in remorse, none the weaker for being alone. And of course, that gaze was the one that Raven knew she would see if she looked away from the tray of shitty hospital food in her lap.

“Rae, what did you _say_?” Summer’s voice. Gods Raven had missed it.

“Eighteen years, and that’s the first thing you say to me? How about ‘hey best friend, I’m really sorry that I let Tai kick you out and never went out to find you,’ or at least, ‘I missed you.’” Raven knew it was pedantic and pointlessly bitter, but so was she, right now. She also knew that what she had said to Yang was wrong, but fuck it, she was well overdue with her quota of lashing out at loved ones.

“I’m so sorry that I never found you, but I had to take care of Ruby. Please, can we talk? You know talking always makes you feel better.” Raven could just picture Summer standing there next to her, hand outstretched in a gesture of peace and love.

“Well maybe I don’t want to feel better. Maybe I’m sick of huntsmen and huntresses coming along and ruining my life. Maybe I want five fucking minutes of peace to grieve my wife!” Raven threw the tray against the drywall, into which it embedded itself. “Just leave me alone before I say something else I can’t take back.”

“I refuse. I’m not going anywhere until I’ve talked some sense back into you. I don’t care if you get discharged and I have to handcuff us together again.” Summer teased, and yet still managed to be completely serious. She would do it, she already had once during the early days at Beacon. When Raven had insisted that nothing was wrong as she agonized over abandoning the clan that had done a far better job of raising her than her father.

“What about Yang and Ruby?” Raven grasped at straws as she realized that she didn’t have anything other than Summer to look at anymore. 

“They have their friends. You, however, are the most stubbornly self-punitive woman in this hospital, and I’ve always been the girl for the job of making you go easy on yourself before.” A fearful glance confirmed Raven’s suspicions. Summer sat at her bedside, hand outstretched, an offer to use her semblance.

“I don’t deserve your help.” All of the old insecurities, everything Raven had never wanted Summer to find out about her, all of it was coming back. There was no weakness she hated more than her own.

“Rae-Rae,” Raven flinched at the hated nickname, “of course you do. Please just take my hand and let me help.” Summer’s eye bore down on her relentlessly.

“Fine, I’ll do it. _If_ you agree to leave me alone after.” Raven muttered.

“I will if you still want me to.” Confidence like that should piss Raven off, but somehow Summer spoke it as naturally as a breath.

Hesitantly, Raven raised her hand towards Summer’s, which didn’t move. There was a brief moment in which they were simply holding hands with each other, and then the strange, almost out-of-body sensation of Summer’s semblance overtook her. Reflective empathy, Raven felt what Summer felt, and vice versa. Raven’s emotions no longer matched her thoughts, instead she felt love, the joy of a reunion with an old friend, and a strong undercurrent of worry. Summer’s projected emotions wrapped around her like a blanket, briefly filling her with warmth and love before the effects of the semblance began to fade, sending Raven back to her own miserable existence.

“Do you still want me to leave?” Summer’s eye glistened with barely restrained tears. She always ended up like that after using her semblance on Raven, she wasn’t accustomed to living her life with the pain of things that can never go away.

“No.” Raven could never bring herself to be abrasive after feeling what Summer seemed to feel all the time. It took her by surprise every time, the complete lack of pity, disgust, anger, grandstanding of any kind. It was always far more than she deserved. Every time she expected the love to be gone, but it never was. Everything was too much, and Summer had seen her cry before anyway, so she finally wailed, collapsing into her old friend’s arms.

“I’m sorry. I know you hate it when I see you like this.” Summer let her hands tangle gently in Raven’s hair. 

“I told Yang it was her fault that Vernal died.” Raven gasped the admission out through a tight throat. “I said that it was her fault. But it was mine.”

“Rae.” Summer breathed the name gently, her tone of her voice echoing Raven’s own. “Oh Rae.” She cradled Raven’s head and began to gently rock it.

It took what felt like a long time for Raven to be able to find words again. Everything just kept tearing her heart open further and further. Summer’s perpetual, undeserved kindness was both a blessing and a curse. It made everything in her life vivid, sharper, more painful. It made it so hard to hide behind her anger, even the anger directed at herself.

“Why are you still here?” Raven sobbed. “Why don’t you hate me? How come you haven’t abandoned me yet?”

“Love is unconditional Rae. Always has been.” Summer sighed, and began to gently rub Raven’s back. “You’re going to be okay, nobody’s leaving you.”

“Nearly everyone’s already gone. Vernal’s dead, the rest must have scattered, been killed or been arrested. I don’t have anywhere to go anymore.” Raven didn’t recognise time as it passed her by. All she could bring herself to do was let her oldest friend comfort her. The worst part was probably the fact that it worked. The more time she spent with Summer, the less immediate and all-encompassing her grief was. 

“You can stay with me and Tai. And Daisy too, we won’t tell Ozpin about her.” Summer made an offer, and Raven accepted.

###### Ruby

Ruby stood anxiously at Yang’s bedside, waiting for her to regain consciousness. She had used her newfound status as Yang’s half-sister to her advantage, insisting that they have some time to speak with each other alone, and that the hospital staff let her into Yang’s room.

“I’m sorry Yang.” Ruby was mostly just talking to herself. She needed to do something while she waited anyway. “I should have backed off before. This probably isn’t my fault, but I didn’t help did I?”

“No, I’m sorry.” Yang startled Ruby as she started speaking without even opening her eyes. Her voice sounded so tired. “You weren’t supposed to find out like that. I was trying to avoid you.”

“You _should_ be sorry for saying such dumb things.” Ruby crossed her arms. She couldn’t believe that Yang had really meant what she said. So what if they were technically related? It didn’t change anything in a way that mattered.

“Ruby.” Yang sat up and frowned at Ruby. “I meant it. We can't date each other.”

“Why?” Ruby scowled back. “Why not? What's wrong with that?”

“You’re my sister!”

“But we didn’t grow up together! Give me one reason why it would be unethical for us to date each other.” 

“I...” Yang trailed off. She looked terrified. “I... if we had kids they-”

“Stop. Do not finish saying that. First, remember that _I’m_ disabled.” Ruby was starting to get mad. That was the first time Yang had ever made an ignorant comment. “Look. Incest is usually a bad thing because when you have that kind of relationship between two people who grew up together, it’s very possible that one of them has power over the other and manipulated them into it. We didn;t meet until we were adults. So what’s morally wrong about us dating anyway?”

Yang was speechless. Then her expression hardened. “Stop. Just stop! This isn’t the time! My mom is dead! Okay? So just fucking stop!” She slammed her fist against the small wooden table next to her bed, splintering it slightly.

“Oh.” Ruby was pretty sure Raven wasn’t dead, so that must mean that Yang’s other mom was. She froze, completely unsure of what to do after completely screwing by starting an argument with Yang. “Should I just leave?”

“No.” Yang sighed. “Don’t go. I don’t want to be alone.” Her voice cracked slightly, and Ruby snaked her hand into Yang’s. 

“Okay.” Ruby looked at Yang carefully. She really, really didn’t want to lose her. Yang had told her that she loved her just last night, there was no way it was just suddenly changed. Still, now was certainly not the time, as Yang had said. “Are you still mad at dad?”

“Of course I am.” Yang settled back into being angry, and Ruby breathed a sigh of relief. It felt like a much more normal state for Yang to be in than depression. “Asshole. And just to be clear, he’s your dad, not mine. I’ll never acknowledge him as anything other than a sperm donor.”

There was still some distant hope that that wasn’t actually the case, but everything as Blake had explained it made sense, and seemed likely. It was only a matter of telling Raven and having a DNA test done, which would probably take some time, considering that Raven probably wasn’t doing very well either. “Do you want to go talk to Raven again?”

“No!” Yang was startled, immediately squeezing Ruby’s hand before she retracted back into herself with a wide eyed stare. “She said that it’s my fault. Because I broke my aura to talk to her when mom also needed her, and she had to choose to save me instead, but I wasn’t in danger. And she was mad at me.”

“It’s not your fault.” Ruby squeezed Yang’s hand back. “I’m sure that she didn’t mean it.”

“It doesn’t matter if she meant it, it’s true. It is my fault. Mom’s dead because I broke my aura.” Yang stared blankly at Ruby as she said it. “I just... I killed her.”

“Stop that!” Ruby was tempted to hit Yang, it seemed like the kind of thing that she would respond to. “Of course you didn’t, some Grimm or something did! It’s my turn to tell you to stop doing this.”

“Well what else am I supposed to do! She’s just dead! There’s nothing I _can_ do, but I need to do something! I can’t just lay here and think or whatever!”

“I dunno, but you shouldn’t be hurting yourself more on purpose. Please don’t hurt yourself more on purpose.” Ruby drew Yang’s arm up to her chest and wrapped it in a hug. “Please?”

Yang’s mouth hung open for a long moment, frozen in the middle of trying to speak. She trembled faintly, then collapsed backward into her bed, going limp and staring at the ceiling, though her eyes were still alert. “I’m so lost.” Her voice was as small as Ruby had ever heard it. “The last time I ever talked to her was when I left two years ago. I was supposed to see her again, but now I don’t even know where her body is.”

“What was she like?” Ruby wanted to hold Yang as close as she possibly could, to comfort Yang and herself at the same time, but she knew that wouldn’t be welcome. It was tearing apart just seeing Yang like this at all.

“Vernal was super sweet. I don’t know how or why she joined the clan because I was still pretty young, but she just sort of muscled her way into my life with affection. It took mom a lot longer to admit that she loved her than it did for me to accept her as my second mom.” Yang let out a choked sigh, her words barely audible. “I wanted to see her again, over the winter break. I was going to go back.” Her words stopped and tears began to take their place. “I can’t now.”

Ruby hugged Yang, trying to keep it sisterly as she started to cry too.


	23. The Tower and the Fool

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry/not sorry for the way that this chapter ends

###### Taiyang

Tai hated awkward silences. Couldn’t stand them. Normally he made a point of breaking them with a joke, but this awkward silence was one he very much deserved, and had the decency to endure for as long as the other part in his home deemed otherwise.

Across from the large armchair in which he sat, a young woman sat on his couch, nearly motionless. When Summer had told him that the Spring Maiden was in their living room as she prepared to drive Yang and Blake to the hospital on Raven’s heels he had almost thought that she was joking. But, well, there was only one reason why Raven would dump a Maiden on Summer. The destruction of her bandit clan, wherein she must have been hiding her from Ozpin. 

“Raven isn’t coming to take me back, is she?” Her mask of patience broke, and she turned to Tai in search of answers. It looked incredibly awkward, sitting on a couch in a large dress that almost resembled something that a maid would wear, though clear blue in color.

“She just got taken to a hospital, actually. That screaming earlier was her.” Tai scratched his head awkwardly. He was not used to delivering bad news. Back in the day it had always been Qrow or Raven’s job.

“Oh.” She whispered the word under her breath. Tai had heard that tone of voice before. It was the same thing that a client said when they received a notice that someone close had been killed in a Grimm attack. He doubted that it was Grimm this time.

For a moment it seemed as if the silence would return, but Tai refused to let that happen. This wasn’t about him anymore, he wasn’t going to let his guest just sit there alone. “Can I get you something? Coffee? Tea? Ice cream?”

“Coffee, please.” She started staring at the wall again.

“Coming right up. What’s your name, by the way?” Tai carefully got out of the chair with a friendly smile. 

“Daisy.” Daisy sighed softly.

“Well Daisy, I’ll be right back.” Tai made coffee as quickly as he could, and made some for himself as well. He had a feeling it was going to be a long day.

When he came back the throw pillow next to Daisy was faintly damp, but he didn’t comment. “Here.” Hep put a tray with the pot, two cups, and cream and sugar on the coffee table between them.

“Thank you.” Daisy’s hand shook subtly as she poured thick brown liquid into a mug vaguely in the shape of a beowolf.

They sat there in another silence, though this one was at least occupied by the subtle sounds of beverages being drunk. 

“Would you tell me what happened?” Tai broached the subject as carefully as he could. He still cared about Raven, how could he not? Even though whether he cared for her as a friend or something more was uncertain, he wanted to know what was happening.

“Huntsmen.” Daisy left it at that one word, but it was enough to figure out nearly everything else. It seemed that Yang had discovered her ancestry with the worst possible timing.

What had Leo wrought?

###### Blake

Once Yang was awake it didn’t take long for her to extricate herself from the hospital room in which she had been kept. There was nothing physically wrong with her, and she had an unlocked aura, so since she had eaten and had water, there was no remaining danger that a hospital could do anything about. Yet despite being in peak physical condition, she leaned heavily against Ruby as she left the room, both their cheeks stained with dried tears.

“Yang!” Blake rushed to Yang’s side, and took Ruby’s place. “How are you doing?”

“Everything is completely fucked.” Yang looked utterly drained, more beaten and sunk into herself than Blake had ever seen her. It worried her sick.

“How can we be here for you?” Pyrrha took Yang’s other side and helped guide her to a plastic waiting room chair.

“I don’t think I’m going to be able to cook for a while. And I guess I don’t really want to be alone.” Yang slumped into the chair, her eyes lethargic as she looked at the friends surrounding her.

“Not going to be able to cook?” Jaune furrowed his brow.

“Mom’s the one who taught me how to cook.” Yang refused to look at anyone.

Ruby preempted further questions. “Her mom, Vernal, died. That’s why Raven’s portal closed suddenly and cut off her foot.”

“Fuck.” Ren immediately swept Yang up in a hug. That it was them of all people was a little bit of a surprise to Blake, but Yang accepted it gratefully.

“That... just about sums it up, yeah.” Yang barely put any force into the hug, and for once ended up being on the side of a hug that gets crushed.

“Hey kids.” Summer greeted everyone as she returned from visiting Raven. “Yang, Rae wants to apologize for what she said before, whenever you want to talk to her again. Don’t worry if you need to take your time, I know you’re going through a lot.”

“No, I think I’ll go now.” Yang gently removed Ren and stood up, a little bit straighter than before. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then exhaled. “Blake, would you come with me?”

“Absolutely.” Blake nodded, and took Yang’s hand in her own. “I’ll never leave you when you need me.”

“Thanks.” Yang gave Blake a quick hug, then led them to Raven’s room in silence. The prospect of what Raven had said worried Blake, but she didn’t really dare ask what it was, considering that it must have been what sent Yang into a panic attack.

“Yang?” Raven looked at the door as Yang opened it. She looked nearly as tired as Yang did. 

“Mom.” Yang’s voice was tight, but she didn’t hesitate to take a seat at Raven’s bedside.

“I never should have said that Vernal’s death was your fault, it was completely wrong, I’m so sorry.” Raven’s words were sincere, yet tense, as if it was a struggle just to say them.

“You said what?” Blake stood up and glared at Raven, her fists clenched at her sides. If Yang wasn’t going to get angry, then she would. “What the fuck!”

“Okay.” Yang shrugged, her expression flat as she barely even looked at her mother. “I wish Qrow was here.”

“It’s not as if I have an excuse.” Raven clicked her tongue, refusing to make eye contact. “Frankly, I don’t know what else to say, communication is not one of my strengths.”

Blake balked again at Yang’s sentiment. “Why do you wish Qrow was here?” She’d heard many things about Qrow, and none of them led her to believe that he was a good influence when it comes to dealing with any kind of negative emotion.

“Does it matter?” Yang shrugged again.

“Of course it matters. You’re scaring me, he’s an alcoholic!” 

“I just want to be in less pain for a little while.” Yang mumbled into her lap. “It’s all my fault anyway.”

“Yang!” Blake’s anger immediately reignited. “Don’t you dare even think that about yourself. You aren’t responsible for your mom’s death!” She reached out and flicked Yang on the forehead, hard.

“Ow.” Yang grimaced. “What was that for?”

“For being an idiot. Now stop blaming yourself for something that happened hundreds of miles away without any of your input.” Blake put her hands on her hips, fully prepared to beat Yang up until she stopped feeling sorry for herself. Sometimes violence was all that knucklehead understood. “Or I’ll kick your ass.”

“You’ll...” Yang stared at Blake for a moment, confused. Then she snorted, once. Again, and a series of snorting laughs broke out as she doubled over in her chair. Blake couldn't help smirking a little as well. “You...” Yang kept laughing, so hard she cried.

“You’re the only person I know who would threaten to beat me up at a time like this.” Yang grinned and stood up, foisting Blake into a crushing hug as she wrapped her wings around both of them. “I fucking love you, Blake.”

“Love you too, you bird brain.” Blake wheezed slightly as Yang tightened her grip further in response to the light jab. They loved each other platonically, obviously.

“Sure you do, cat burglar.” Yang kept a wing affectionately wrapped around Blake even after releasing her from the hug. Then she looked at Raven. “I’m just... I need some time. That was a fucked up thing to say, and it’s not going to stop bothering me anytime soon. Bye mom, I’ll come back to visit in a few days, probably.”

“I’m not going anywhere for a while.” Raven raised the leg that was missing a foot dryly. 

“Yeah. See you around, I guess.” Yang grabbed onto Blake’s hand and led them out of the hospital room, though not without one last glance.

###### Weiss

A strange thought lurked half-formed in the back of Weiss’ mind as xe watched Blake and Yang head off together. When xe tried to latch onto it, all xe found was a sense of uneasiness. Xyr brow furrowed, xe turned back to Ruby. Xe should probably take this time to speak with xyr partner.

“Hey Weiss, could I talk to you alone?” Ruby interrupted Weiss’ thoughts before xe could act on them.

“Of course.” Weiss followed Ruby’s lead to an empty corner of the sterile waiting room.

“I’m not going to stop trying to keep dating Yang.” It was almost a blur of words, but Ruby somehow contained them, probably because she was being relatively quiet.

“I see.” Weiss’ stomach knotted instinctually, but xe tried to suppress xyr initial reaction. 

Ruby flinched away as if she had been burned. “You hate me don’t you?”

“Absolutely not.” Weiss took hold of both of Ruby’s hands, aware that the contact would help her. “The prospect makes me uncomfortable because of how I was raised, but I wish to deliberately avoid being judgmental in this, as I have learned to do in other things.”

“Do they?” Ruby inclined her head toward team JNPR, who were conversing quietly amongst themselves. “It feels like they are, but I’m not really good enough at understanding that kind of thing to tell.”

“I think that that’s something you’re going to have to ask them.”

Ruby flinched again, and took her hands from Weiss’ as she started to wring them anxiously. “I guess so. Maybe it would be better to just not know. I mean, the asking has to be worse than the not knowing, and if Yang rejects me anyway later when she’s prepared to really think about all this it probably won’t even matter-”

“I will not allow you to wallow in doubt. If you need a push, I will drag you over there and make you ask them.”

“Yeah, that would probably be for the best.” Ruby pursed her lips, then nodded. She squared her shoulders with a huff and took Weiss' hand in her own. “Let’s go.”

Weiss cleared xyr throat as xe approached the closely knit team, garnering their attention. “Ruby has something that she must ask you, all of you.”

“What’s up?” Jaune looked worried as he turned around, but no more than anyone else.

“You all saw me and Yang earlier.” Ruby fiddled with her hands nervously, not looking at any of the others as she spoke. “I don’t want to stop dating her just because of this. Do you hate me for that?”

“Of course not!” Nora jumped at Ruby and wrapped her up in a hug. “I can’t judge people for following their heart, it’s how Ren and I ended up here!”

Pyrrha coughed nervously. “I have admittedly been trying not to think about that, but I would never hate you Ruby. Being an only child, I don’t feel like I know or deserve to say anything about it.”

“As I see it, there is no moral conflict here, only one of social standards.” Ren nodded, though they nonetheless seemed to be slightly squiked.

“Jaune?” Ruby got out of Nora’s hug and looked at her best friend, who was visibly struggling.

“I have seven sisters.” He sighed heavily and his expression soured. “The idea of dating one of them is _really_ disturbing. But...” he shrugged helplessly. “Whether or not Yang’s technically your sister, you’re my bruh, bruh, and you only met each other when the semester started, the relationship you have is nothing like if you’d known each other growing up, and I’m going to support you.”

“Bruh!” Ruby jumped at Jaune and hugged him too.

“Bruh.” 

“Bruh.”

“Bruh.”

“Love you bruh.”

“You too bruh.” Jaune left the hug, still smiling at Ruby.

“We get it, you’re friends.” Weiss rolled xyr eyes, mostly amused and only slightly irritated by the sappy display. For some reason, the thought that xe wanted to hug Ruby crossed xyr mind, so xe did.

“Awww, thanks Weiss.” Ruby wrapped her wings around both of them for the hug, darkening the atmosphere as she clung tightly in a way that made Weiss’ heart beat just a little bit faster for some reason. Most likely nerves from still being relatively unused to such contact.

“Don’t get used to this.” Weiss grumbled without any real conviction. Ruby was very soft and warm and cute. Cute?

“I’ll try.” Ruby didn’t let go until Weiss’ breathing started to become noticeably strained, and she fretted the moment she did. “Are you okay, was I being too touchy again?”

Oddly, Weiss felt mostly positive about the experience, despite xyr elevated breathing and heartbeat. “Not at all, it is my responsibility to speak up when I become uncomfortable. On the other hand, bruh?” Xe quirked an eyebrow skeptically in Ruby’s direction.

“It’s our thing.” Jaune smiled and deflected the question.

“It’s a total meme, which actually only makes it cuter.” Nora helpfully stepped in and answered for the man.

Ruby and Jaune blushed at the same time. 

“You think we’re cute?” Jaune stared at Nora like she’d grown a third head.

“Yep. And I mean it in an individual kind of way, not to imply that there’s anything non platonic happening. The depth of your platonic relationship only serves to make you individually cuter and deepen my-” Nora was cut off as Ren put their hand over her mouth.

“I thought that you didn’t want to tell anyone about that?” Ren waited a moment before slowly removing their hand to let Nora respond.

“Oh, right. Whoops, you guys can just pretend that didn’t happen.” She gave them all a nervous thumbs up.

“Okayyyyyyy?” Weiss narrowed xyr eyes at Nora suspiciously, but didn’t say anything.

“Thank you.” Ren nodded.

“It’s Yang.” Pyrrha directed everyone’s attention back down the hall, where Yang and Blake walked toward them all, hand in hand. Yang looked a little bit less haggard than she had before.

“Hey guys.” Yang sighed heavily. “I need to go home.” 

“Where is home?” Ruby sounded slightly hopeful as she asked.

“Beacon. Home is Beacon, because it’s where we all live.” Yang smiled sadly. “It’s the only home I have left.”

“Can we get back there tonight? What time is it anyway?” Blake yawned. It was getting late.

“It’s only about dinnertime, we can get back tonight.” Ren refrained from asking why Yang didn’t want to stay in Patch, near Raven.

“Don’t you want to stay near your mom?” Jaune went and opened his mouth, despite Blake’s obvious gestures to be silent.

“No.” Yang’s voice was hard. She turned around and started to leave the hospital, not looking back to see if anyone was following her. “Come on, Summer’s car will fit all of us.”

###### Ruby

There wasn’t much conversation on the trip back to Beacon. Throughout the entire thing Yang stayed deathly silent, and no one wanted to disturb her peace. Blake remembered to force Yang to eat some fast food while they were at the airport waiting on a ship to arrive, but she spent the rest of her time completely engrossed in something on her scroll. There was only one brief detour, in which Blake temporarily split off from the group to go into a nondescript family owned shop and come out carrying a paper bag about the size of a slightly large deck of cards.

Everyone but Blake collapsed into their beds as soon as they reached their dorm, though the only one who seemed to have any success falling asleep was Weiss. The sounds of Yang tossing and turning, combined with her own distress was too much for Ruby to be able to sleep, and it didn’t take long for her to decide to just go and look for Blake, hopefully she could occupy herself with whatever it was she did during the nights through which the vampire no longer slept.

Blake responded quickly to an inquiry of her location, and Ruby strolled through the dim halls to the library. Blake was at a reading table on the second floor, holding a deck of cards in her hands and staring up at the shattered moon that shined through the glass outer walls of the library.

“What are you doing?” Ruby felt the need to keep her voice relatively low in the quiet atmosphere of the nighttime library. The cards in Blake’s hand didn’t look like playing cards, they had a strangely intricate and beautiful design of constellations and symbols on their backs.

“Looking for answers.” Blake looked down at the deck of cards, then at her scroll, reading something as a reference.

“Is that what you bought on the way here?” Ruby sat down across the table and curiously tried to get a look at the cards as Blake began to shuffle them.

“They’re tarot cards. Faunus don’t have anything in the way of a common religion. It’s mostly just a few scattered beliefs that are passed down through families that weren’t completely assimilated into human culture. Remnants of tribal practices, many of which are lost forever or commercialized. I left a lot of things behind when I chose to stay in the White Fang, and this is one of them. But...” Blake stared up at the moon. “I want to take it back. It makes me feel a little bit closer to my parents, even though I don’t think I’ll ever see them again.”

“Are they dead?” Ruby hadn’t heard Blake mention her parents before.

“No.” Blake’s tone indicated that she wasn’t going to answer anything else about them, then she checked the scroll one last time before closing her eyes and beginning to shuffle the deck. “I’m worried about Yang’s immediate future, I’m going to start by just laying out a card for her past present and future, from my left to right.”

“Do you want me to go?” Ruby watched Blake’s hands deftly shuffle the deck, though their motion was also heavy, respectful, even.

“Not at all, I’d appreciate having someone to talk through this with. I’m pretty much just teaching myself all of this right now.” Blake took a deep breath and laid down three cards, then turned them face up. “The page of wands, the ten of cups in reverse, and the Hermit.”

“That’s amazing art.” Ruby looked closely at each of the drawn cards. They all depicted Faunus, painted colorfully in ways that her acute night vision had no trouble picking out. The page of wands depicted a gleeful old woman with mouse ears striding confidently into what was probably the Vacuan desert. The ten of cups had a large family that appeared to be celebrating an event, the focus was two women who seemed to be interacting meaningfully with each other. The Hermit was a young man with scaled arms who swam alone in a vast and beautiful ocean.

“They really are beautiful cards.” Blake stroked the tops of the remaining cards affectionately, then quickly turned to her scroll and read something. “The page of wands represent freedom and exploration, and new kinds of expression.”

“That makes sense, leaving the Fang sounds like it was pretty freeing for both of you. And she once told me that she sees fighting as a way of expressing herself. There’s been a lot of opportunity for her to fight constructively here, and that’s probably different from then too.” Ruby reached for the card, but hesitated. “Can I take a closer look?”

“Yes, just be gentle, and put it back in the same position when you put it down.” Blake watched with a gentle smile as Ruby took the card. It was oddly heavy, and very smooth to the touch. “That all makes sense, and so does the ten of cups in reverse. The ten of cups represents harmony with loved ones and companions, and in reverse it’s the opposite of that. Usually it doesn’t refer to death, but there’s more than just death that Yang is struggling with.”

“It’s awful, she didn’t even do anything wrong. It all just happened at the same time.” Ruby carefully put back the page, and didn’t dare pick up the ten. “What about the future?”

“I think that the Hermit is a good sign. It represents a search for inner truth. It doesn’t scream pain the way that the ten of cups in reverse does. Eventually, she’s going to be able to find her own answers. It also involves isolation from the demands of the world.” 

“Finding a truth away from the rest of the world?” Ruby barely dared to hope. “Do you think that might mean still being in love with me and being okay with it?”

“It could. It does make a kind of sense.” Blake pursed her lips reluctantly. “But you shouldn’t try to look for the answers you want to find.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Ruby fidgeted nervously, suddenly realizing she still hadn’t talked to Blake about her and Yang. “Do you care about that? Us being biological sisters?”

“I haven’t really thought about it. And I’d sort of rather not think about it.” Blake sighed. “But it’s not like I’m capable of resenting either of you about it. Whatever problem I might have, it’s on me, so don’t worry about it.”

“Okay.” Ruby hesitated, then got up, walked to the other side of the table, and hugged Blake from behind. “Thanks.”

“What for?” Blake didn’t avoid the hug.

“For being such a great friend and a great person to all of us and being here and letting me be here for this.” Ruby pointed at the three cards still laid out on the table. “There’s something really reassuring about it.”

“It’s not that big a deal, really.” Blake shook her head, then gestured to the chair right next to her. “Why don’t you sit here, and we can both look at my scroll for reference.”

“Sure.” Ruby gave Blake one last squeeze, then moved the chair right next to Blake, leaning against her a little bit. It was cold in the library at this time of the night. None of the lights were even on, not that the two Faunus needed them. “Could you do me now?”

“Alright. The past, present, and future?” Blake collected the three cards she had laid down and shuffled them back into the deck.

“Sure.” Ruby watched carefully as Blake laid out three cards once again, then flipped them in order.

“The Fool, The Wheel of Fortune, and the Tower.” Blake frowns. “Three major arcana, that’s really unlikely. And worrying.”

“It’s bad?”

“Not in itself, but let’s go in order and you’ll see.” Blake indicated the Fool first. “The Fool is an optimist embarking on a perilous journey. Usually that’s in a good way, even if the journey is fraught with unknown danger. There’s also an aspect of innocence, which I’d say describes you pretty well coming to Beacon.”

“That sounds pretty good.” Ruby nodded. 

“Well, when you thought about the past, present, and future, exactly what periods of time were you thinking of? What do they mean to you?” 

“The past is before I came to Beacon, the present is being at Beacon, and the future is when I leave Beacon.”

“I think I should explain the next two in order. The Wheel of Fortune is just that, fortune, fate, change, events beyond our control. Maybe even destiny. On its own it’s neither good nor bad, but then there’s the Tower.” Blake’s voice shook faintly as she continued. “If there’s one arcana that I’d describe as ominous, it’s the Tower. It’s an upheaval, a disaster. It’s ultimately another kind of change that brings forth new strength, but the way that it follows the Wheel of Fortune... it feels like an inevitable disaster. And it makes me think of Roman Torchwick, the White Fang, Adam, all of these circumstances beyond our control that we don’t know much about.”

“That’s... worrying.” Ruby moved a little bit closer to Blake, grabbing onto her arm. “We agreed to do something to stop Torchwick if the Kingdom wasn’t succeeding, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, but we can afford to give them more time. We need to recover before we think about making a move like that. Do you mind if I clear these away and do myself?” Blake waited for Ruby to nod before silently reshuffling the deck once again. “Three more.” She laid out the cards. “The Devil in the past, the Moon in the present, and the Tower in the future. Three arcana, again.”

“And that one, especially.” Ruby stared at the Tower. “That’s not good.”

“It’s not. I don’t like it. But we should do the Devil and the Moon first. The Devil is a cruel, materialistic, trickster. He binds people with invisible chains, words and emotions, and usually in a manipulative way. So, Adam, who I’ve left in my past.” Blake took a turn of her own to hug Ruby for a moment before continuing. “The moon.” She picked up the card and observed it more closely. It’s design didn’t include a person, instead it was simply an illustration of the shattered moon. “Instinct, natural impulses, and something all the more beautiful for the damage it’s gone through, and yet lives on with us all, just like the real moon. It draws out who we truly are when no one is looking.” Blake looked up at the moon in the sky.

“Who are you?” Ruby thought about looking at the moon too, but she couldn’t look away from Blake, her skin shining under the moonlight. She was beautiful.

“Sometimes I think I know.” Slowly, Blake reached for the bow at the top of her head, and took it off, draping it across her hands. “But I do know that it’s time I found out. I’m done hiding my nature.” She stared at it for a long moment, then balled it up and threw it into the nearest trash can with perfect accuracy.

“Congratulations!” Ruby beamed and gave Blake another hug. 

“Thanks.” Blake ran her hand down Ruby’s spine, drawing forth a sigh. “But there’s the tower again. The fact that it’s showing up again seems to indicate that whatever tragedy it foreshadowed before isn’t just personal.”

“Maybe you should do Weiss next?” Ruby really didn’t want to let go of Blake, even if she knew she probably should before something awkward happened.

“Yeah.” Blake went through the routine again. Shuffle, deal, flip. “The Devil in the past, the Magician in the present, and the Tower in the future.”

“That’s two cards that are the same again.” Ruby frowned. “Are you sure that you’re shuffling well?”

“I’m a good enough shuffler.” Blake ran her finger along the edge of the Tower.

“The Devil is xyr father this time. I think that’s pretty straightforward. But what’s the Magician?” 

“The Magician is willpower. The will to bring about the world that resides within, and make reality reflect the self. In other words, you could call it magic. I almost wonder if it might be possible for it to mean that literally, in a world where gods and vampires are real, but here it’s probably metaphorical.” Blake smiled, lost in thought. “Weiss is certainly quite strong-willed.”

“And then the Tower, again.” Ruby shivered. “And we keep getting three arcana.”

“It’s weird. There are twenty-two arcana, and the other four suits each have fourteen other cards. This is ridiculously unlikely. I’ll try doing all four of us.” Blake repeated the routine. “Death in the past, the Lovers in the present, the Tower in the future.”

“I’m guessing Death isn’t literal death?” 

“No, Death is just an embodiment of change. The end of something that comes with the beginning of something else. Seems pretty simple, coming to Beacon changed all of our lives a lot, and it was the beginning of a new, major part of our life.” Blake moved on. “The Lovers is... what it sounds like. Relationships, often romantic, but also the resolution of internal conflict and the dichotomy between two different parts of a whole. It’s odd, I would have expected this one to be something more academic in nature. This is meant to represent our entire time at Beacon, and I can’t imagine that developing romantic relationships would be the most important part of four whole years, no matter how important they are to us.”

“Maybe we don’t get four years. The White Fang is acting now, or soon. Right now, and for a while longer, meeting you three is the most important thing about my time here at Beacon.” Ruby regretted what she said immediately, afraid that Blake might interpret it correctly.

“I hope not.” Blake frowned. “But I guess it could also point to us pairing off in that way. Between me and Weiss, and you and Yang.”

“Right. Pairing off.” Ruby chuckled nervously. Some distant part of her had hoped that Blake would call her out on the implications of her statement. 

“And then the Tower. Again. There’s no way that this isn’t really bad.” Blake stared at the card uneasily. “I’m not drawing any more cards tonight.”

“I should probably-” Ruby yawned in the middle of her sentence. “Go to sleep now anyway. I don’t know whether this is going to make it easier or harder.”

“Go on ahead. It’s not like I sleep anyway.” Blake smiled as she returned the deck of cards to their bag.

“But I’m tireeeed.” Ruby yawned again. “Carry me?”

“Fine.” Blake rolled her eyes as she scooped Ruby up into her arms. She was asleep before they reached their dorm.

###### Yang

Yang couldn’t sleep. There was a deep knot of tension in her stomach that wouldn’t unwind, and she felt endlessly restless. Despite the fact that she had spent a portion of the day unconscious, she felt more tired than she had been in her life, but she still couldn’t sleep.

It felt like hours passed, spent tossing and turning in search of a moment’s peace from her own thoughts and from her own pain. If she could just sleep, she could get that much closer to being better or something. At the very least she would be further away from where she was right now when she woke up. Because right now was pain, and suffering, and death. 

As she lay there a thought slowly made its way into her mind. A terrible, insidious thought that she knew she shouldn’t act on, but that was beginning to seem to be the lesser of two evils in the midst of the worst night of her life.

At some point she got out of bed, telling herself that it was just because she needed some milk. She went to the refrigerator and opened it up, then looked behind the nearly empty gallon jug of milk. There were two plastic containers behind it, one with a blue lid and one with a green lid, as well as a sticky note warning off any potential thief. Without consciously choosing to, Yang slid a hand under the green lid and retrieved a single cookie.

She just wanted to be able to sleep.


	24. Rock Bottom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am genuinely sorry about what happens in the beginning of this chapter
> 
> CW: there is a non consensual kiss in the Ruby POV section. If you want to skip it I will put a summary of that section in the end notes

###### Ruby

It was weird when Ruby woke up and Yang was still asleep, but it made sense. She had had trouble falling asleep last night, just like Ruby. So she was careful not to make too much noise as she made her way to the cafeteria to have breakfast with Blake, Weiss, and team JNPR.

When lunch had come and gone and Yang was still asleep, Ruby began to worry. It wasn’t until she contemplated having a cookie and opened up the fridge that she realized what was happening. “Fuck.” There had been three weed cookies left in her stash, and they were all gone. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Ruby grabbed Weiss away from xyr desk, where xe had been “enjoying a rare and precious moment of silence” and forcibly dragged xyr outside, making constant shushing gestures.

“What?” Weiss seemed torn between anger and concern.

“Yang ate my last three weed cookies last night. That’s why she’s still asleep.” Ruby started to rub her hands together, stimming.

“Is she going to be okay?” Weiss’ eyes widened immediately.

“Yeah, she’ll probably feel even more like shit than she has been, but there’s no real physical danger from overdosing like that, especially when your aura is active. She was asleep when I went to bed the second time last night, so there’s only going to be less in her system as time goes on.” Ruby sighed. “The real thing I’m worried about is the obvious.”

“We need to get Blake over here and be ready to talk to her when she wakes up.” Weiss nodded, and took out xyr scroll. “You should stay with her in case she wakes up before Blake is here.”

“Yeah, both of you should be there if you can, but let me make one thing clear. This is my responsibility. Blake might want to take the lead because they know each other so well, but I’m the team leader and I need to make sure that this doesn’t go bad.”

“When did you become so responsible?” Weiss quirked an eyebrow.

“I hurt Yang yesterday because I was only thinking about myself. I need to start working harder to think about taking care of others because that’s what a huntress does. The three of you especially, as your leader. I can’t be so selfish.” Ruby smiled, and prepared herself to just live with it. She needed to pull herself together and help Yang, for everyone’s sake. Her feelings didn’t matter now, and they didn’t matter yesterday. The others were more important than her own desires right now.

“Good luck.” Weiss looked at xyr scroll. “Blake hasn’t responded, I’m going to try to find her.”

“I’ll be waiting.” Ruby nodded, and quietly made her way back into the dorm. Yang still wasn’t awake, so she settled into Weiss’ bed so that she would be at Yang’s eye level and waited.

The first sign that Yang was awake was a heavy groan. Followed by her burying her face in her pillow.

“Yang. We need to talk.” 

Another, slightly more muffled moan was her only answer.

“You need to sit up in that bed and talk to me right now.”

Yang shot Ruby the bird, an irony that would have been funny in any other situation.

“I’m serious Yang, for every time that you ignore me I’m going to give you a week of detention with Professor Goodwitch.”

Yang flopped over and spoke to the ceiling. “What?”

“Do you know what you did last night?”

“I couldn’t sleep. And now I feel like shit.”

“Do you remember how you managed to sleep?” 

“I stole one of your cookies.” Yang’s voice was tense.

“You had all three that were left. Are you awake enough to understand why it’s unacceptable for you to have even one under these circumstances?”

“I’m awake enough to know that I deserve a fucking break from this shit.”

“That’s not a healthy way to use addictive substances and you know it.”

“Well _excuse_ me for being completely fucking overwhemled with grief and self-hatred.”

“Using drugs to numb your pain is one way to become dependent. Do you want to be like uncle Qrow?”

“Why not? He’s a great huntsman.”

“He’s also miserable.”

“Yeah, well, I’m miserable anyway, so what difference does it make?”

“The difference is that you’re not alone! I...” Ruby hesitated. No, she needed to do what it takes, for Yang. “I’m your sister and I care about you! Weiss and Blake care about you! And we need to get through this the healthy way, because if you develop a substance abuse problem you’ll be endangering all of us. Are you okay with that? If you don’t want to cause anyone else to get hurt you need to start by taking better care of yourself!”

“Fuck me! And not in a fun way, I’m a piece of shit. I should just rot. I killed my own mother!”

Ruby stomped over to Yang and started shaking her violently as she spoke. “Yang Branwen, you did and are no such thing! Accept my love and support or else!”

“Fine!” Yang grabbed hold of Ruby and pulled her down into bed with her and in the moment of surprise that followed, Yang aggressively kissed her. Ruby couldn’t react as Yang’s tongue slipped past her lips and sloppily traced it’s way around her mouth. After a painfully long and uncomfortable time, Yang pulled back and wiped off her mouth with her sleeve. “There. That’s what you want, right?” Her voice was bitter, as if she was the one who hated what had just happened.

It took a second of staring at Yang, sickened, before Ruby managed to gather the will to turn into a flurry of petals and create some distance between them. “I’m sorry I pushed you before but that’s not what this is about!” She did her best to pretend that hadn’t just happened, and to stop her voice from shaking as she got ready to tell Yang off further. “I just want to be here for you! I just want you to be able to be better.”

“You need to listen to her Yang.” Blake spoke calmly from behind Ruby, her bow still gone, even though she had just been out in the school grounds.

“I...” Yang opened her mouth defiantly, but as she did so she seemed to deflate, as if all the things she was saying were finally catching up with her. “I’m never going to be better, okay? I can’t undo any of what I did. So just stop. Just leave me alone.”

“Please. We’re here for you, no matter what.” Weiss confidently stepped up to Ruby’s flank. “You need to choose to help yourself first, but we can help with that once you do, and we won’t leave you alone until you do.”

Yang scowled as she looked between her teammates. “Fine. Whatever. Do whatever you think you need to do.” She sunk down into her bed again. “I’m tired. I’m just going to sleep.”

“No, you can’t just stay in bed all day, that’ll only make you feel worse.” Ruby stepped forward to drag Yang out of bed, then involuntarily froze. “Blake, make her get up, Weiss, ask Ren to make Yang something nice for her breakfast. I’ll talk to Ozpin and get her alternatives to regular classes, and schedule an appointment with the councilor for her.”

“Alright.” Blake started to give Ruby a hug, bust as soon as Ruby felt a hand on her she jumped away as if burnt, and Blake pulled back with a questioning look. “You did well Ruby. But, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Ruby lied reassuringly to Blake, and got to work.

###### Yang

It was all Ruby’s fault, was what Yang wanted to think. If Ruby hadn’t been so wonderful and amazing that she fell in love with her, their shared parentage would probably even be a good thing. She could have patiently waited until she saw her mom again and just talked things out, she wouldn’t have interrupted an important fight, and she never would have kissed Ruby by force.

That was the moment that she knew something was wrong with her. She’d gone out of her way and done that, just for the sake of hunting herself. As if she needed more reasons to hate herself. And somehow Ruby had then gone and apologized, as if it was her fault that Yang was despicable and irredeemable.

The worst thing was the way that Ruby had been scared when Blake tried to hug her. Ruby thrived on physical contact, and now it looked like Yang had ruined that too. So she gave up. Weiss and Blake made it clear that resistance was futile, so sure, might as well go along with whatever everyone wanted her to do because they thought she would feel better.

Breakfast was tasteless, and Yang barely noticed any of the people who talked to her as she robotically ate it. It was probably the usual seven, but it didn’t really matter anymore, it wasn’t as if talking to them would do anything but harm. 

They made her work with Nora out after that. It was something she would normally do as a part of her routine. Even Nora had trouble talking to her, it felt like every observant glance while spotting was a judgement, an accusation.

Yang went through the motions for as long as she could stand it, sleeping whenever she had a moment’s peace. At some point Ren said something that she heard.

“My parents died to save me and Nora.” Their voice cut through the fog in her head.

Slowly, Yang turned her head, and saw that there was nobody in the room but the two of them. “What?”

“My parents died to save us a long time ago.”

“Okayyyy.” Yang narrowed her eyes at them.

“So stop.”

“Stop what?”

There was a sharp sound that briefly filled the room, and then Ren spoke again. “Stop this.”

Yang slowly put a hand to her cheek. It stung, and she realized that Ren had slapped her. She wasn’t even paying enough attention to notice them do it. “What?”

“Stop cutting yourself off from people because you think it’s your fault she’s dead and you don’t want to hurt them too.” 

“How?” Yang stared at them, dumbfounded that they had just said almost exactly what she was thinking.

“Like I said, my parents died to save me. This isn’t the same, but you still love them, don’t you?”

“Of course I do.”

“And you feel indebted to them? Like you’ll never be good enough?” Ren didn’t bother waiting for a response. “So how is this better than the alternative? Even if you never are good enough, it’s better to try and fail than to just throw away what they’ve given you without a fight, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, probably.” Yang sighed. She was still tired, but Ren was also right.

“So get up. I volunteered to take you to counseling.”

“Wait, what?” Yang grimaced. That sounded like a terrible idea.

“Are you even aware that it’s Wednesday?” 

“Wednesday?” Yang started to panic. She needed to talk to Ruby first. So she could apologize? Was that even the right thing to do? “It’s been that long?” She needed to do something, at least. “I need to talk to Ruby first.”

Ren tilted their head curiously. “Why?”

“That’s none of your business.” 

“She’s in class right now, you’ll have to talk to her afterward.”

“I’m not going to counseling.”

“You are if you want to go to combat training again.”

“What!” 

“You need to be approved as being emotionally stable to spar with someone safely.” 

“Fine.” Yang sighed. “But I really don’t think this is going to be useful.”

###### 

It turned out that the school counselor was Professor Peach. She was sitting in an armchair across from Yang, the room around them nearly as ordinary as possible, save the small collection of nondescript stuffed animals along the wall near the couch.

“Sooo, what’s even the point of me being here?” Yang leaned awkwardly against her own arm on the couch.

“The idea is that you can talk about whatever’s going on with someone who’s being paid to listen to your problems, thus relieving you of the potential guilt that you are troubling someone you care about. Hopefully, I can also provide a bit of sage advice, though you kids don’t usually like to listen to it.” Peach smiled humorously at Yang, her ears twitching gently in a way that faintly reminded her of Blake’s.

“And I have to tell you things, to get you to not use some sort of coercion to get me to do this?” Yang grimaced. She didn’t like the idea of just telling a professor what she was going through, although at least it was Professor Goodwitch.

“Not necessarily. We could just talk about your current mental state, and none of the reasons behind it, but in my experience that isn’t very helpful.” Peach shrugged, her entire presence felt open and genuine, even more so than when she was teaching about plants.

“Well,” Yang did want help, and she knew she needed it, and it wasn’t as if she could go to any of her friends, especially not about her most recent mistake, “what do you already know?”

###### Weiss

Everything about the past few days had ended up finding a way to grate against Weiss’ nerves. With Yang barely taking care of herself or responding to the world around her, Blake had spend a great deal of time assisting Yang, meaning that not only had they not yet gone on a long-awaited date, Weiss couldn’t help but ferment a small seed of jealousy at the sheer volume of time Blake spent taking care of Yang. 

Furthermore, Ruby was behaving incredibly strangely. She barely seemed to spend any time in the dorm, and she nearly never initiated any physical contact with anyone, despite being by far the clingiest person Weiss had ever met. She acted as if everything was fine, and was behaving far more like a leader than she had previously, but it was an incredibly strange and sudden shift.

Ultimately, it left Weiss feeling dejected, something xe did xyr best to stave off with the company of team JNPR and team CFVY. Even now, Blake had gone shopping in the time that Ren had volunteered to make sure that Yang got to her appointment with Professor Peach.

“Weiss.” Blake gently nudged Weiss' attention to her with a soft whisper. “I’m back, and I got something for you.”

“Something for me?” Weiss tried not to blanch. Gift giving was habitually a mere means of currying favor not too long ago, and the prospect of such a gesture from xyr girlfriend was not a pleasant one.

“I know we haven’t spent much time together because of Yang lately, but there isn’t much I can do about that because she’s just as important to me as you are and she’s struggling. So I wanted to get you something that might be helpful now, and later. I know that sometimes you aren’t comfortable with contact, so I thought maybe...” Blake lifted a bag with one hand and removed something black and white and fluffy. “You could use something that isn’t a person to cuddle?” She presented the stuffed boarbatusk to Weiss with a shy smile. 

Weiss slowly reached out and took the plushie, turning it over to study it’s soft form. It was about the size of a watermelon, and it squished gently under xyr touch. Xe hugged it against xyr chest, and it was soft, yet solid, and comforting without any of the complications of hugging a person. “Thank you. This is the best gift I’ve ever received.” Xe carefully wiped the dampness from xyr eyes, not wanting to get any on the plushie.

“It’s that good?” Blake’s smile grew confidently.

“I’m rich. The only gifts I’ve received in the past have been attempts to garner attention with a display of wealth. This is precious, it’s something that I would never think that I need, and thus could never simply buy for myself.” Weiss buried xyr face in the plushie, only partially for the sake of hiding the tears that now flowed freely.

“Do you want to give it a name, or shall I?” Blake’s hand hovered over Weiss’ shoulder.

“You may hold me.” Weiss felt as downright mushy and ready to be held as xe had in years. It flew in the face of everything xyr father had taught xyr, and it felt wonderful. “Would Bella be an acceptable name for her?”

“You want to name her after me?” Blake sounded like she was blushing as she hugged Weiss and Bella at the same time. “That’s really sweet, of course you can.”

“It might be in poor taste, and of course I care for her too, but could you take a break for long enough for us to go on a date sometime soon?” Weiss looked up at Blake. “I understand this, but it’s still difficult for me, and we still haven’t even managed to go on a single date in the past... has it only been a week and a half since the incident at the docks?”

Blake’s brow furrowed briefly. “Wow, yeah it has. It feels like so much longer. And I do think it would be appropriate to take an evening for us. If you would like to plan it, I would be happy to hopefully go on a date with you this time.”

“Good.” Weiss settled xyr head into the crook of Blake’s neck, taking a deep breath. That was reassuring, yet still some degree of jealousy of the sheer degree of attention Yang was receiving remained. Ah well, it should be gone following their date itself.

“Let’s stay like this for a while? I haven’t gotten enough of you lately.” Blake hummed contentedly as they held each other.

“Yes. Absolutely yes.”

###### Raven

Taiyang’s old house brought back a lot of memories. Nearly all of them were good once, but the past had tainted them too much for Raven to be anything but disgusted about moving there from her hospital bed. Still, it’s not as if she has a home, with the clan either destroyed, captured, or scattered. He at least had the decency to go on a week long mission, beginning the day that she was released from the hospital.

“Alright, there we go.” Summer stopped walking to dig her keys out of her purse and open the front door with Raven leaning against her. She’d offered to order Raven a prosthetic from Atlas, but Raven had refused. 

Raven had no intention of getting something made by a stranger. She intended to ask Ruby to make her a prosthetic, and pay her for the trouble, though that was something that would have to wait until Yang reestablished contact with her. Meaning that she would be staying here for an indefinite amount of time, unless she decided to get some sort of legitimate work in or near Vale, which was unlikely. She didn’t trust Ozpin enough to so much as work in the same city as him.

“Right.” Raven nodded to Summer as she was deposited on the living room couch. Her surroundings were both painfully familiar and hauntingly different. Where once had been framed pictures of team STRQ, were now images of Tai, Summer, Ruby, and sometimes Qrow. Various drawings of outrageously complex weapons and tools were hung up in various spots of honor throughout the house, and even a few hopefully nonfunctional prototypes of said designs. It was a house that was home to two parents and one daughter, and she couldn’t help wondering what it would be like if it had raised three parents and two daughters.

“You’re back!” Daisy ran in from another room and nearly threw herself onto Raven for the sake of a hug. No doubt the poor girl needed it. They weren’t the closest of people, when Daisy had first arrived Raven had let the rest of the tribe handle her, and told herself that she should kill her and take the Maiden powers for herself. In the end she hadn’t, but the entire tribe had been happy to take her in as a member who eagerly devoted herself to doing chores and pulling her own weight as much as possible without fighting.

“I don’t suppose that Tai did anything worth killing him for while you were here?” Raven hugged back a little bit, but not too much. Old habits of maintaining her image were useless at this point, but they weren’t going away anytime soon.

“No killing anyone in my house, especially my husband.” Summer gently flicked the back of Raven’s head with her finger.

“You know I was mostly joking.” Raven rolled her eyes as she gently pushed Daisy off of her. “Although frankly I don’t see how you could still love him at this point.”

“Rae.” Summer looked at her in a way that seemed designed to bring guilt bubbling to the surface. “You’ve made worse mistakes, and I still love you.”

“Being a bandit wasn’t a mistake.” Raven met Summer’s gaze head on for once. “I don’t regret it. I made a family, I took from the kind of people who got rich off of systemic racism, and I killed a lot of people who were doing things far worse than I ever did.”

“You’ve changed a lot, huh? The old Rae would have been ashamed of going back to living like that.” Summer smiled sadly. It’s strange to see her so mellow. “Well, I guess I’ve changed too.”

Raven shook her head. “It was nothing like before. I made my own choices. I was in control of my life.” She laughed bitterly. “And now I’m not, though at least I’m not under Oz’s thumb either.”

“He’s not an evil man, Rae.”

“That’s the worst part. That man is disturbing. I’d rather have a tyrant whose motivations I understand than a man willing to make any sacrifice for the greater good, while being the only one who actually knows what that greater good is. The only thing he’s ever done is groom and manipulate students for his private little war and you know it.” Arguing about Ozpin was probably the only thing Raven hadn’t missed about Summer. An Ouroboros may be eternal and wise, but it was still a snake.

“And if he ever stopped doing that, the consequences would be worse than anything else he could do.” Summer shook her head. 

“She’s right.” Daisy butted in with an unusual amount of confidence. “I never wanted to be a part of it all and when Ozpin told me that it was my destiny to be a part of this fight, just because I had happened to get this power, it didn’t change that. All I’ve ever wanted is to be a florist. And now my girlfriends are dead or captured by the kingdom and I’ll probably never see them again.” Her voice broke, and Raven quickly pulled her in for another hug.

“You’re going to get through this, okay?” Raven wasn’t entirely sure who she was saying it to, or that she believed it, but she said what she thought was best. 

“Right.” Daisy didn’t even bother hiding that Raven was her only emotional support as she nodded and clung to her arm like a kid. “It’s been hard.”

“Yeah.” Raven reluctantly let Daisy stay in her position. “You don’t need to tell me that kid.”

Stillness didn’t really suit Raven, but she stayed in place long enough for Daisy to decide that she wanted to be alone again while Summer chatted about nothing to distract them. It worked well enough, but with Daisy out of the room there was nothing else to occupy her time, so Raven figured she might as well take a look around.

“I’m going out.” Raven got up on her own and started to half stagger half limp her way to the front door.

Summer let her go on her own, a warm smile on her face. 

“What?” Raven couldn’t help throwing a glance at her before she left. 

“I was just thinking. You’ve changed for the better in a lot of ways.” Summer’s grin broadened, growing as bright as it was in the old days this time.

“Whatever.” Raven turned to face the door and walk out, then slipped into bird form without bothering to close it. It felt so good to spread her wings again after being cooped up in the hospital. Even if it had been just another ploy to keep her tied to him, the magic that Ozpin had given her was something she had made her own. It was so freeing to fly, nothing but the wind in her feathers, the ground below, and the sky above. 

It was quite an advantage, being able to scout out her targets like this. She had sometimes even let Vernal pet her in this form. It was an oddly comforting act. 

The other advantage of being a bird was that there was no one around to see her cry.

###### The Support Group Weiss Needs and Deserves, Even if Xe Tells Xyrself That Xe Doesn’t

IceQueen: Why have you named this group chat that?

hotCoco: because it’s true bitch

ChocolateBunny: what Coco means is that it’s because you have our undying love and support as your seniors and mentors

hotCoco: literally what I just said

aFemboyFox: I see you’ve finally accepted our offer

hotCoco: fox, please stop making that same joke over and over

aFemboyFox: only if you do something in return

IceQueen: I will reluctantly admit that some problems cannot be shared with the people closest to me

IceQueen: And that I thus do in fact wish for your assistance.

Yatsu: please ignore Fox’s antics and share your troubles. You are among friends

hotCoco: Let me guess Fox, you want us to suffer

aFemboyFox: oh you’re no fun anymore

IceQueen: In the past two days since Yang went to her first counseling session and started being slightly more like herself, I have found it increasingly difficult that Blake spends so much time watching over her

IceQueen: by her own admission Yang still needs someone keeping an eye on her to ensure that she does not engage in further self-destructive behavior, and Ruby has been oddly adamant that she cannot do that, thus leaving Blake largely responsible for her

IceQueen: As a result I am experiencing feelings that I do not understand

ChocolateBunny: so, jealousy?

IceQueen: yes, but that will not continue to be a problem for much longer and I am able to speak of that with Blake. There is more 

IceQueen: Ruby has not hugged me or anyone else in nearly a week. I need not point out how unusual this is. I hate to admit this, but I miss her hugs and am incredibly worried about her

IceQueen: And towards Yang I do not know how to react. I wish to add myself to the moments that she has with Blake, but we are not as close and I feel as if it would be a disservice to separate her from her closest friend because of my own selfishness

IceQueen: I am left at a complete loss

hotCoco: so ultimately what you’re saying is that seeing Yang and Ruby in pain is causing you distress as well and you don’t know what you can do to alleviate that either for yourself or them?

IceQueen: yes, largely. That is a very succinct way of putting it

Yatsu: So what small part remains?

IceQueen: The part that I do not understand

IceQueen: I find that I feel oddly similarly about this distance that has appeared between myself and Ruby and Yang as I do about my distance from Blake

aFemboyFox: so then you’re romantically attracted to them too?

Chocolate Bunny: Fox!

IceQueen: No. That can’t be right. I’m not like that. I would never do something like that

hotCoco: Weiss breathe

IceQueen: I am not unfaithful. My word is my bond

IceQueen: I would never betray Blake

IceQueen: I am nothing like HIM!!!

hotCoco: there’s nothing wrong with having feelings for multiple people

hotCoco: nor with dating multiple people, given that they consent

IceQueen: WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SAYING

hotCoco: I’m pretty sure that it’s impossible to be more direct about what I”m saying than that

ChocolateBunny: it’s okay to feel the way that you do Weiss, not that I’m assuming Fox was right

IceQueen: he is correct, the little bitch

IceQueen: I believe

IceQueen: I don’t know

IceQueen: probably

IceQueen: fuck

Yatsu: deep breaths Weiss, you’re going to be fine

IceQueen: how??????????????

ChocolateBunny: you can talk to Blake about it if you want, or you can avoid acting on these feelings until you decide that you’re ready to talk to her

IceQueen: or, I can pretend everything is fine

hotCoco: I will personally whoop your ass if you try some dumbass bullshit like that

IceQueen: how reassuring

Yatsu: it’s important to do these things when you’re ready, but you can’t wait forever

IceQueen: wait, fuck

IceQueen: if I hide this it could worsen my curse

hotCoco: tits, I hadn’t thought of that

IceQueen: I can’t take that risk, it’s so close to being gone, i can feel it I’m so close to just being myself

IceQueen: I want to be alone in my head again

IceQueen:and that’s more important than keeping my relationship with Blake the way that it is now

hotCoco: now that’s the kind of shit I was expecting to have to beat into you, good job

IceQueen: we’re having a date tonight. I’ll tell her then

IceQueen: in the meantime, I demand to know everything you know about this situation

ChocolateBunny: with pleasure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> summary: Ruby discovers Yang ate all(three) of her remaining cookies, decides she needs to repress thing to be a better leader, Yang kisses her without consent before Weiss and Blake are there as backup, she decides to repress that, and the three of them yell at Yang until she gives in a little bit


	25. Take The Time

###### Blake

“You remembered what I said about overstimulation at that one history lesson and considered that I have heightened senses, didn’t you?” Blake smiled at Weiss as xe laid out a heavy blanket over the ground. The air out in the forest was cool under the night sky, and her mouth was already watering at the prospect of what she could smell in Weiss’ picnic basket as they set themselves up in a small clearing. She felt a little bit guilty about taking time away from Yang, but she definitely needed it.

“I did. If not for that information I might have taken you to somewhere in the city, but I think that this peaceful, natural atmosphere suits your beauty quite well.” Weiss rolled xyr head as xe carefully took a seat on the blanket with xyr legs crossed, then proceeded to smooth out the edges of the fabric as Blake stood by, flustered.

“Thank you.” Blake gathered the confidence to step forward and briefly kiss Weiss on the cheek before taking a seat in a position mirroring xyr own. “I feel very connected to the night and the natural world lately, and this is wonderful.” She eyed the picnic basket hungrily. “And the food I smell in that basket is looking even better the hungrier I get.”

“Of course you can smell it.” Weiss chuckled gently and began to remove the contents of the basket. “So I was correct in observing that you have an affinity for fish?” 

“Yeah, it makes me think of-” Blake stopped, her lips instinctively sealed shut. She looked at Weiss, who looked back at her curiously. “It reminds me of my parents.”

“I see.” Weiss didn’t comment on the fact that Blake’s parents were still alive, instead xe pulled out a small dish and began to plate it with sushi. “I ordered this from the best place in Vale. They were scandalized when I asked for it to go.” Xe smirked, and handed the plate to Blake.

“The blood and tears of the bourgeois sustain me.” Blake deadpanned. “As does their delicious sushi.” She failed to keep a straight face as she grabbed the plate and applied a generous amount of wasabi to a piece of salmon sushi. Her ears flicked happily as she chewed. Every single one of Weiss’ little services and xyr gentle looks made her heart melt just a little bit.

“My blood, certainly, but I do hope you haven’t been drinking my tears.” Weiss smiled broadly, and Blake appreciated the way that xe remained elegantly poised as xe lifted a piece of her own to xyr mouth. “The tears of my father however, you are most welcome to harvest.”

“I’ll keep that in mind if I ever have the displeasure of meeting him.” Blake would very much enjoy doing all sorts of violent things to Jacques Schnee. 

“Oh, I am quite sure that the displeasure would be all his.” Plate in hand, Weiss dragged the picnic basket next to Blake, then placed xyrself next to her as well, touching together their shoulders. Xe sighed heavily.

“Is something wrong?” Blake wrapped an arm around Weiss’ shoulders.

“There is something we must discuss. I feel a certain amount of dread and guilt over it, and I would thus like to wait until we near the end of this date to do so.” Weiss’ voice was as near to trembling as it ever got.

“Okay.” Blake kissed Weiss on the cheek in between practically inhaling pieces of sushi with generous amounts of wasabi, ginger, and soy sauce applied to them. “You can take your time.” It was a little worrying, but she trusted Weiss.

Weiss reciprocated by delicately lifting Blake’s hand to xyr mouth and kissing the top of it, then going back to eating. “What did you mean when you said that you felt connected to the moon of late?”

“It started when I did some tarot readings with Ruby the night we got back from the hospital. I drew the moon in relation to myself, and it just... fits.” Blake shrugged. “It’s still strange to think sometimes, but I’m a creature of the night now, and so many other things. I was afraid of it at first, but I’ve come to enjoy embracing my instincts when it’s appropriate, like with you.”

“You hadn’t mentioned that.”

“It’s not the kind of thing you just announce. I’d prefer to just explain it all individually, since it’s personal. And, you know, it’s been a busy week.” Blake shrugged. “Do you know about it already?”

“I have academic knowledge, though academic knowledge is rarely meaningful in such matters.” Weiss spoke in the careful fashion xe reverted to when xe was working to avoid reflecting xyr father’s opinion of a subject.

“Yeah. It was just sort of a game I played with my parents when I was young, but I remember that there was some family history behind it. Up until recently I still didn’t take it seriously, it took realizing that the gods must be real. So I figured, if some of these beliefs are verifiably true, why not the rest? Why not the ones that are important to me?” Blake had to stop for a moment, taking a deep breath. She hadn’t even realized she was getting close to tears, but Weiss’ familiar scent helped calm her. “I wish I hadn’t missed out on being taught about it by my parents, but the White Fang was the right choice at the time. It was justice. It still would be, if not for Adam.”

“I still find it very difficult to reconcile that idea.” Weiss sipped gently from a bottle of water. “And it slightly disturbs me that your opinion remains the same, but I can accept it, given that you understand the White Fang here in Vale is a serious danger.”

“It is.” Blake nodded, relieved that Weiss was being so understanding. “It’s incredible, I already feel really connected to my deck. It’s an extension of myself, but also something more.”

“Interesting. I would enjoy participating sometime.”

“Mmm, I definitely want to show you, but not out here. Don’t want to get dirt on the cards.” Blake lazily ran her fingers along Weiss’ scalp. “This is so nice. It’s exactly what I need. Thank you, again.”

“I wouldn’t mind getting used to spending evenings in this fashion, though in some ways it is disappointing that you do not sleep.”

“If you want to sleep beside me sometimes, I would enjoy it. Time passes quickly when I’m with you, whether we’re talking or not.” Blake wanted to hold onto Weiss like this for a long time.

“That’s a tempting offer. I’ll let you know.” Weiss smiled, and xyr head nestled against Blake a little bit more comfortably. Xyr voice was somber as xe continued. “There’s something I should tell you.”

“Okay.” Blake is content to lay there until Weiss chooses to speak.

“With the help of Coco and the other, it has come to my realization that I... I have feelings for Yang and Ruby as well as yourself.”

Blake’s breath hitched as a sudden tightness appeared in her chest. “What? What does that mean? Why? I don’t understand. That can’t be right! Don’t you love me?” Even as she said it it felt wrong, but at the same time, she meant it. Something she’d tried to forget was rearing its ugly head. She pushed Weiss off of her and took hold of the blanket beneath her, desperately holding onto it lest she do something else with them.

Weiss looked downright nervous as xe returned to a sitting position. “It has no bearing on my feelings for you, and I haven’t acted on it in any way. Please calm down.” 

Something about the way that Weiss was posed worried Blake. She clenched her teeth, entrenched in her sudden panic and anger. What snapped her back was the realization that there was a faint blue glow around Weiss. Xyr aura was up.

“Fuck.” Blake clutched her head between her hands. “No, fuck, fuck, fuck. What am I doing?”

“Blake.” Weiss spoke with forced calm. “It’s okay. Neither of us have done anything we can’t take back. I’ve heard the promises, seen the mistakes. That was a genuine mistake, it’s okay.”

Her muscles relaxed slightly, but Blake kept breathing rapidly, her mind going back to the times she was asked exactly what she had asked Weiss. It was a kind of legitimate question, given the circumstances, but she hated it. She should know better. Yang had spent a lot of time specifically helping her understand just what Adam had been doing to manipulate her before they got to beacon.

“You’re okay Blake. You’re safe here, and we can talk through this.” Weiss stretched out xyr hand, and Blake cautiously took it. It was cool, and it helped her think again.

“Right.” Blake’s mouth was dry as she spoke. “Talk. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m so sorry Weiss.” She lifted Weiss’ hand up to cup her cheek. “Please forgive me.”

“You’re forgiven Blake.” Weiss doesn’t pull back xyr hand. “I’m sure that you have a good reason for reacting the way you did.”

Blake was torn between wanting Weiss to be closer to her and a need to be alone as she tried to gather her thoughts. “Being with Adam messed me up. I’m still trying to sort myself out in some ways, and stop thinking the way he wanted me to. I don’t know if it was a good idea for us to start a relationship in the first place.”

“I know what you mean.” Weiss sighed. “I’m sure you’ve noticed that I have similar struggles. But I want to try. You’re worth the effort.” Xe gently squeezed Blake’s hand. “Could you tell me why you freaked out?”

“There was this girl in the White Fang. Ilia. We liked each other, even though I was already dating Adam. She tried to tell me that there was nothing wrong with it, but I told Adam and he said that I should be ashamed of myself, and that Ilia had betrayed my trust by seducing me.” Just bringing it up made Blake feel guilty all over again. “She was relocated to the Menagerie branch of the White Fang before I ever saw her again.” As with much of her life, it got worse, but that part didn’t even bear thinking about right now.

“I would understand if you feel that it is necessary to end our relationship then.” Weiss bowed xyr head. “That is a horrible occurrence.”

“No. That’s not it. I don’t want to live my life on the basis of behaviors and fears Adam did his best to ingrain in me. It brings back bad memories, scares me, and confuses me, but I want to figure this out.” Blake clasped both hands around Weiss’. “Together.”

“Together it shall be.” Weiss smiles, and adds her other hand on top of Blake’s. “Where shall I begin?”

“I’d like some reassurance. That we don’t have to change. That you won’t leave me because of this.” 

“Not at all. I am dating you, and that is more important to me than fledgling feelings for others. I can live on without acting on this, and intend to do so for the foreseeable future regardless of your opinion on such, given the emotional states Yang and Ruby are currently in.” 

“Good.” Blake murmured, then spoke more clearly for the sake of Weiss’ human hearing. “Good.” She paused awkwardly. “So, where do we go from here?”

“”Well, I would like to continue engaging in open communication about this subject, and hopefully someday we may give consideration to making our relationship polyamourous. Only if we both become comfortable with the idea.” Weiss quickly clarified, and then pulled Blake into a hug. “I want to make it as clear as possible that while this is something I would hope for, you absolutely do not have to work towards it if you don’t want to.”

“You sort of need to tell me what ‘it’ is before I can know about it.” Blake gently ribbed Weiss, taking a moment to chuckle at the way xe managed to carefully and reassuringly word everything without providing some crucial information.

“Right.” Weiss coughed gently to hide xyr embarrassment. “The conceit is simple, and is about the extent of what team CFVY explained to me previously today, given that the rest of the time I spent in communication with them was taken up by efforts to calm me from the agitation brought on by my discovery of my feelings. Polyamory is the principle that it is possible to ethically maintain romantic relationships with multiple people so long as all parties are aware and in agreement.”

“I see.” Blake couldn’t help but wonder what Adam might have to say about such a practice, and shudder. “That sounds reasonable. There’s no way I could handle something like that right now, but that’s because I know I’ve got too many issues still. But, I don’t think I’m inherently against the idea? I liked Ilia at the same time as Adam, and now that you’re telling me this I kind of wonder what might have happened if Adam wasn’t so... Adam.”

“Very well then, I have a proposal.” Weiss separated their bodies enough to cooly look Blake in the eye. “We can keep talking about this and related matters, learn more and seek assistance from team CFVY, and when all four involved parties are ready, consider actually taking that step.” 

“Yeah. I think that sounds like a good idea.” Blake nodded, and pulled Weiss in to hug xyr. “Why does team CFVY know so much about the whole thing, anyway?”

“They’re currently all dating each other.”

“Oh.” Blake blinked. “That’s a thing that can happen?”

“Supposedly, it’s surprisingly common among teams.” Weiss shrugged.

“Yeah, it’s just... different hearing about a new concept and then learning that people you know have been involved in it for some unknown amount of time now.” Blake mused. “Anyway, do we have to end the date now?”

“No. I wished to wait until something approximating an end because I feared that this conversation would end poorly. I suppose that I could stand to sleep in tomorrow, given that it is the weekend.” Weiss gave Blake a look that made her almost want to spirit xyr away to a storage closet or something. “I would love to continue our date in a much lighter vein.”

Blake didn’t miss how Weiss casually slipped in the word love. She wouldn’t want Weiss to say that xe loved her after what she had said, and now xe was carefully communicating something similar in a way that she didn’t have to fear was because she had said something manipulative. “In that case, I could tell you about the major arcana.”

“That sounds delightful.” Weiss settled into Blake’s arms, and they looked up at the starry sky as they talked far later into the night than was reasonable for anyone who still needed to sleep.

###### Yang

Most of the time Yang was really annoyed and distantly peeved about having someone constantly watching over her because they didn’t trust her not to do something stupid or get stuck in a depressive spiral. The rest of the time she was incredibly thankful to have someone watching over her because she kept trying to do something stupid or getting stuck in a depressive spiral. 

Despite this duty that her closest friends were rotating through, Ruby hadn’t once been alone in a room with Yang. Not since Yang had assaulted her. Which was fair, obviously. But Ruby hadn’t even acknowledged it in any way. She seemed to act like everything between them was fine and familial, but she never got too close, or stayed for too long. It was disturbing.

It just so happened that all of team JNPR was busy on the night of Weiss and Blake’s date, meaning that Yang was left alone with Ruby, something she suspected both of them hated, even if unconsciously. She wasn’t sure if it was best to say something about it, but not knowing where she stood with Ruby in any way, shape, or form was killing her, so she decided that she had to take the plunge. Open hatred would be better than this limbo.

“Ruby, why are you acting like this?” Yang felt that she needed to ask Ruby from across the room, to let her have as much distance between them.

“Like what?” Ruby stopped what she was doing to look at Yang with perfectly innocent confusion.

“Why are you pretending everything is relatively normal? Why don’t you hate me after what I did?”

“It’s fine.” Ruby shrugged. “If you just want to be sisters I can handle it. Why would I hate you?”

“No, I mean about what I did.” Yang really didn’t want to say it, she hated that she did it, but she had to confront Ruby, and had to own up to it. Hopefully apologize? “When I assaulted you the morning after we came back from the hospital.”

“Huh?” Ruby stared blankly. “What are you even talking about?”

“What do you mean what am I talking about?” Yang had no idea how to respond.

“Assaulted me? That’s a silly thing to say. Nothing like that’s ever happened.” Ruby laughed, but it was a forced, stuttering sound.

“Ruby.” Yang’s face fell. What had she done? Ruby wouldn’t even acknowledge it? “Do you really not remember, or are you just pretending?”

“I literally have no idea what you’re talking about.” Ruby was obviously trying to avoid looking sick. “I’m done with this conversation now.”

“You’re not a good liar.” Yang refused to turn back now, she needed to finish this now that it had begun. She didn’t want to lose Ruby from her life too. No, she needed Ruby back, as... something. In some capacity. This silence couldn’t continue. “Please at least just tell me you hate me and we can never be close again. Please just acknowledge it.”

Ruby slowly drew her knees up to her chest and hugged them She glanced at Yang out of the side of her eye, her voice weak. “Of course I don’t hate you.” She flinched for no apparent reason. “But stop. I don’t want to have to think about it. I just want to forget and let things go back to normal.”

“That’s not working. You haven’t hugged or cuddled with anyone in days, you know that isn’t normal for you. I don’t know whether I should be saying this after what I did, but I don’t want to let you be like this. I care about you.” Yang bit her lip. “You shouldn’t torture yourself like this. Please. I don’t care about anyone’s opinion of me, just get help from someone like Blake or Weiss. You can trust them, right?”

“I can’t say anything. If I do they might tell someone else and you’ll get kicked out of Beacon or thrown in jail or worse and it’ll be my fault because I couldn’t just deal with it and stop being clingy and a horrible girlfriend and nothing will ever be okay again because we’ll all split up forever even though I love everyone and I won’t ever be a huntress and horrible things will happen.” Ruby’s ramble ended with her burying her head between her legs.

Yang wanted to bang her head against the wall, not out of frustration, but for the sake of making herself hurt. Ruby was afraid, both of her and because of her. “I’m sorry. I’ll just leave it alone, as long as you want me too.” She didn’t know what else she could do but respect Ruby’s wishes. If she had left things well enough alone before Vernal would probably still be alive. She hated herself so fucking much. She was so fucked up.

“Good.” Ruby put her headphones on, ending their conversation for good.

###### Weiss

Weiss hummed pleasantly in time with the familiar waltz that filled the tastefully decorated ballroom. Xe was far more comfortable in xyr dark blue and white suit than xe had previously been in the dresses forced upon xyr by xyr father. It felt good to have something that hugged xyr figure precisely. 

“A dance?” Blake appeared beside xyr with her hand outstretched and a playful smile on her face, wearing a sleeveless black dress trimmed with gold that matched her eyes. 

“Certainly.” Weiss took Blake’s hand and sighed contentedly as her other hand came to rest on xyr hip. Gentle warmth radiated throughout xyr body from the point of contact.

Blake took the lead as Weiss’ head leaned against her shoulder. “That’s not so bad now, is it?” She directed them through the dance with a grace and precision that never allowed for a moment’s doubt.

“It is not.” Weiss had somehow expected that xe would be the lead in a situation such as this, but this felt so natural, and yet alien. “And yet it feels wrong.” Xe frowned, even as xe felt comfortable at Blake’s side.

Suddenly, Blake was no longer Weiss’ dance partner, and the song was no longer a waltz. Instead a slow, grinding, distorted song that resembled something Ruby had once tried to introduce xyr to played, and Ruby herself bounced up and down before xyr in an act that was probably meant to resemble dancing.

“Come on, just move your body however’s fun!” Ruby shouted over the music, and pulled Weiss closer to her, guiding xyr through wild, loose movements in close quarters.

“What?” Weiss began to find a strange appeal and rhythm in the music, and as xe moved with Ruby’s guidance, found that it was oddly freeing, being guided by an external force. Xe relaxed, feeling what Ruby would probably call the flow. Xe reached for the sky with xyr eyes closed in enjoyment, only to be suddenly spun about as the music changed once again.

“Is that all you’ve got princess? Or are you just ready to stop messing around?” Yang led Weiss through an intense tango, her eyes burning red in a way that sent strange shivers down Weiss’ spine. Her gaze was almost predatory, save for the knowing patience behind it.

“I have no idea what you could possibly be referring to.” Weiss gulped as Yang led xyr into a deep dip, their faces hovering centimeters apart. Xe was very aware of the fact that Yang could just drop xyr as she pleased. Or pull xyr that little bit closer.

“It’s okay to let go a little.” Yang’s eyes went back to their usual lavender, but she didn’t alter the angle of the dip at all. “You seem to like losing a little bit of initiative, so why not just enjoy it? You don’t need to be in control of everything. Let us handle some of it, and some of you, too, ‘kay?” She grinned lavisciously.

Time felt frozen around them as Weiss struggled to think through what Yang was saying. Everything felt so hazy, save the two pinpricks of light in front of xyr. “Okay.” Xe relaxed xyr neck and let xyr head droop, certain that Yang would right xyr.

Yang did more than right Weiss, she pulled xyr up into a kiss that seemed to make their surroundings melt away. She wrapped Weiss up in warmth and her hands began to roam freely as they kissed.

Weiss moaned into the kiss as Yang’s tongue aggressively slipped between xyr lips. Xyr hands weren’t nearly as adventurous as Yang’s, up until another pair of hands took them and placed them firmly against the bare flesh of Yang’s ass.

There was no need to breathe as Yang ended the intense kiss, only for someone else to grab Weiss’ face and pull xyr into another lustful kiss. A glimpse of red tipped hair revealed that it was Ruby, who was more gentle than Yang, but just as bold and insistent.

Now there were six different hands stroking Weiss’ body, and somehow all three of their owners had become naked as they pulled xyr into a large bed with them. They traced along xyr thighs, back, the edges of xyr breasts, and her petite rear, leaving hot trails of fire on xyr skin. Someone even slipped a finger into xyr mouth, which xe sucked just as happily as xe would a tongue.

The fingers at Weiss’ thighs slowly worked their way up, drawing nearer to xyr sopping core. Xe gasped, ready for it to slip inside, and...

Weiss awoke with a start and a small whimper. Xyr body was hot and sensitive, and half-remembered images and sensations from xyr dream occupied xyr mind. For a moment xe almost reached down and played with xyr breast in search of that same sensation, only to remember xyr location as Yang turned noisily in her sleep.

These sensations were more than a little bit strange, and vaguely uncomfortable, even as they were almost overwhelmingly pleasant. It was almost entirely new to xyr, after having grown up in an isolated environment. It was probably inevitable that some degree of libido would awaken within xyr, given that xe was living in a room with three beautiful women. But, it seemed like it might be a good idea to simply embrace it, though xe wasn’t currently in a position to do anything to soothe it. 

“Does what you said earlier about joining you in your bed still apply?” Weiss murmured softly, expecting Blake would probably hear xyr. Xe looked at her bunk, and sure enough, the soft glow of a scroll illuminated Blake, who gestured for xyr to come closer. Xe complied, and Blake put away her scroll as xe lay beside her.

“Hey.” Blake wrapped her arms around Weiss and kissed the back of xyr head. “Bad dream?”

“No.” Weiss blushed, and was very glad to have Blake wrapped around xyr from behind. “Good actually.”

“So that’s what that smell is.” Blake teased gently, then shifted her head slightly and whispered directly into Weiss’ ear. “You smell delicious.”

Somehow, being teased by Blake managed to help take Weiss’ mind off of xyr arousal. “I do only wish to sleep. Just not alone.” Xe tried not to think about the dream too much, but xyr mind kept drifting to one particular part, beyond the fact that it had involved all three of xyr teammates. “I have thoughts. About the more intimate aspects of our relationship.”

“Oh?” Blake queried, her voice smooth as velvet. “I’m listening.”

“I believe that I would enjoy giving up control at certain times.”

“I already thought of you as doing that during my feeding. A little bit at least.” Blake’s fingers drummed gently against the side of Weiss’ stomach. 

“That is generally true.” Weiss shivered as xe thought back on those moments. “But I suppose that I would like to make that dynamic more explicit, and perhaps we could find a way of making it more interesting that we would both be comfortable with?”

“Right now?”

“No. Right now, I’d simply like to ask that you take care of me until I awake.” Weiss sighed. That felt good to say. Mentally, xe let xyrself sink further into Blake’s embrace, accepting it as something that bound xyr. “Don’t let me out.”

“You’re not going anywhere until you’ve gotten some rest, snowflake.” Blake shifted so that Weiss was slightly pinned under her, her body almost serving as a blanket until she pulled a blanket onto both of them. “Is that the sort of thing you’d like for me to say?”

“Yes.” Weiss shuddered. “That’s perfect.” Xe let xyr eyes close, faint memories of kisses and roaming hands drawing xyr back into sleep.

###### Ruby

Ruby watched half-awake as Weiss slept beneath Blake, illuminated by the morning sun. She wished that was her. She needed contact and comfort, but it would only make her feel like she needed to get away. Yang was still asleep too, and she thought about the one time that they had slept together, even though it made a knot in her stomach. Of course she still loved Yang, she would never hate anyone. Was it a bad thing that she did? Maybe. 

Yang was right that she couldn’t live like this though. It was awful, she needed something to really distract her from everything. Some sort of major project that would force its way into her thoughts when she was trying to sleep instead of that one moment, and that she would get a sweet rush of endorphins from progressing through. A hyperfixation, then.

There was something Ruby had toyed with the idea of learning for a while now, and that she had just been too lazy or distracted to do anything about in the past. It might be helpful in more than one way too, relieving a little bit of pressure in her life while she tried to figure things out. Maybe she could even figure out how to communicate with people better. 

For nearly the entire day Ruby was stuck to her scroll. She didn’t really want to talk to anyone anyway, and learning was nice and distracting, even if she got a few curious looks from her team. Hyperfixation was fun, and it didn’t take long for her to start voraciously learning and memorizing as much as she could. Learning sign language was a good idea.


	26. I'm Leaving Behind That Empty Feeling Inside

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> off schedule, but fuck it. I can't not upload this, it's too good

###### Blake

“I’m so fucking lost.” Yang sighed before mechanically shoving watery eggs down her face. They were all back to eating most things in the cafeteria, just like when they had first begun the semester. “Everything is fucked.”

“Everything?” As far as Blake knew, Yang’s relationships with the team should be fine-ish, and yet Ruby had been doggedly avoiding her, especially this morning. She and Weiss hadn't even come to breakfast with them. But that was probably just because of lingering feelings, wasn’t it?

“Well,” Yang looked up at Blake with a half smile, “not us, but almost everything else. And it may never be right. I don’t know what there is to do, or if I can do anything.”

“Are you fishing for advice or just venting?” Blake was reminded of the Hermit that she had drawn for Yang the other night. Maybe a gentle push would be appropriate.

“Mostly just venting, but sure, I’ll take whatever advice I can get.” Yang shrugged.

“Sometimes we need to find the peace to look within ourselves for answers. Maybe the solution to the problem isn’t about someone else, but yourself.”

“So it’s not about what I can do or say for Ruby, but about changing myself?” Yang stared at her food, lost in thought. “That’s... I think that’s actually really good advice. When did you get so wise?”

“I did a tarot reading for you the other day, the Hermit was in your future.” Blake lightly punched Yang in the shoulder. “But I’ve always been the wise nerd to your dumbass.”

“I take it back. You’re not wise, you’re a wise-ass.” Yang laughed faintly for a moment, then grew contemplative. “The Hermit though, huh? That gives me an idea. I... I think I might know what I need to do.” She stood up, her eggs half eaten, and motioned for Blake to stay as she rose to follow. “No, I need to work this out on my own. I think that’s part of the point of what you just told me.”

Blake took a long look at Yang. Her stance was straight, yet relaxed, rather than tired or stiff. Determined, as if things were settling a little bit back into the way that they had been before. “Alright, just come back in one piece.”

“Don’t worry, i’m just going to talk to someone about doing something. I’ll meet you back at the room.” With a final word, Yang set off on a brisk walk.

“Is that really a good idea?” Jaune watched as Yang left, concerned.

“Sometimes you just gotta do things alone.” Blake moved over to join team JNPR as they ate their breakfast.

Nora sighed wistfully. “I do love to watch her go.”

“Nora!” Pyrrha gasped, and lightly swatted Nora on the arm. “You shouldn’t talk about our friends like that.”

“Yang revels in her attractiveness.” Ren shrugged, though their eyes seemed to follow Yang as well. “I doubt that she would mind, especially from a friend.”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way.” Pyrrha turned and looked as well.

“All of you are weird.” Jaune shook his head affectionately. “I don’t get why you would even want to do that.”

“Really?” Ren gave Jaune a look. “Interesting.”

“I’ll adjust the odds.” Nora winked at Ren, then quickly pulled out her scroll and began tapping away.

“What odds?” Jaune stared at them, confused. 

“Don’t worry about it.” Ren reassuringly pat his shoulder.

“Okay.” Jaune immediately brightened back up. “What were we talking about before?”

“Flour Power!” Nora cheered. “Ren brings flour and throws it and it makes a giant cloud, and then I shoot a grenade into it and it explodes in a giant fireball and everybody dies!” She emphasised her explanation with verbally created explosion sounds and by throwing her hands into the air. “Except for us. You know why?”

“Why?” Blake’s ears twitched, her attention fixated on Noa.

“You see, what I need to do is make sure that the grenade detonates nice and close to Ren.” Nora nodded confidently, as if she had just announced her victory.

“What?” Ren stiffened.

“Because the initial explosion will burn up all the flour right next to it and have less of a shockwave, and a smaller burn radius. That way Ren has more time to run away.” Nora patted a still slightly concerned Ren on the shoulder. “You’ll be fine, and if you aren’t, that’s just what aura and practice are for.” 

“We are not repeating the process you used to practice aiming your grenade launcher.” Ren shook their head emphatically. “I got so many concussions.”

“But it was soooo worth it, I’m a total explosives expert now.” Nora pouted, but it didn’t quite work on Ren, not with bodily harm in the equation.

“Jaune does have the most aura, maybe he should be your training dummy.” Blake teased. “He’s slower than Ren too, so if he can get by then so can Ren.”

“Great idea! Jaune?” Nora high fived Blake, then turned her pout to Jaune.

“That’s...” Jaune began to protest, only to trail off and start rubbing his chin. “Getting knocked around by explosions for training purposes. I think I may have just discovered a new kink.”

“Nice.” Nora nodded approvingly as Pyrrha blushed and muttered something about adding explosives to Miló.

“Okay, that’s enough of you guys’ craziness for today. Thanks, my life feels a little bit closer to being normal now.” Blake shook her head. 

“Is this not a normal topic of conversation between friends?” Pyrrha tilted her head, eyes wide and innocent.

“Only on the internet, I think.” Blake shrugged. “Mostly I meant the part about blowing Jaune up for the sake of experimentation. That’s something only hunters would ever talk about.”

“Cool, I guess that means we’re ahead of our academia.” Jaune bobbed his head proudly.

“Sure we are.” Ren smiled, and patted Jaune’s head affectionately, much to Nora’s delight.

###### Maria

Maria Calavera was not having a good week. Ever since Saturday, the future had looked incredibly grim. The seven beacons of hope that she had until recently foreseen herself meeting on a train to Argus were on longer anywhere to be found, and as a result it was not only Beacon that would fall to darkness, but Mistral as well. Someone, somewhere, had used the gift of Choice incredibly poorly, and it was her self-imposed duty to do something about it, though every timeline she attempted to create was equally futile.

Then, that morning, it changed. Six of the seven would make it to the train, and through the following night, only to die before a swarm of apathy they lacked the transportation to escape. That was good, at least. It was progress.

Clearly, then, the crux of the matter must lie with the one who would be absent. Yang Branwen. Maria set her intent to ask Ruby where Yang was, and the future changed. In this timeline, Yang was left behind in Patch, with unspecified means of speedy transportation to Mistral that inexplicably hadn’t been used. Perhaps setting Yang up with another form of transportation would do the trick. One that could get them all off the farm, while still fitting on board the train. A motorcycle, maybe.

Maria contemplated visiting Beacon, posing as Yang’s long lost great aunt, and giving her a motorcycle. Her semblance showed her that she wouldn’t find Yang at Beacon if she did so, despite her still being enrolled there. Probably for the best, lest she taint her following meeting with the kids. No, this should be done indirectly, through her best confidant. She pulled out her scroll and called her oldest and closest friend, who picked up immediately.

“Hey you old coot, please tell me you didn’t just call me to ask another favor for the future of Remnant.” A gruff voice greeted her. “You should just come over for some damn bouillabaisse sometime, it wouldn’t kill you.”

“Actually my dear, there have been more than three separate occasions in which it would kill me.” Maria chuckled. “But I’m afraid that I do have to ask you to die for me again. And this time, bring a motorcycle with you. Something yellow, I think.” Events were beginning to to fall back into place in a way resembling what they had been before.

###### Yang

“Miss Branwen? What brings you to me?” Ozpin pushed the bridge of his glasses up his face as Yang walked up to his desk at the top of Amity Tower.

“There’s something I need to do. For the sake of myself, and my team.” Yang sighed, and took a seat. “It’s major, and there’s not any precedent to it, so I thought that you might be able to help me.”

“It is my duty to further the education of my students, by any means necessary.” Ozpin nodded pensively. “But if you would kindly tell me what ‘it’ is?”

“I need to take a sabbatical.”

“For what reason? I understand that your mother has passed away, but I fail to see how that requires a sabbatical.”

“It’s not just that. Some other stuff has happened that’s personal, but the point is that we can’t function as a team anymore because of me, and I need to let them be without me for a while. Ruby can’t trust me, and she shouldn’t trust me, and the only thing approaching an idea that I have right now is to make sure we don’t have to see each other for a while.” Yang didn’t want to leave, but there was no way that she could fight with someone who couldn’t even be near her. And if they couldn’t fight together they would drop out, and if they dropped out it would be her fault for screwing everything up, so she had to find a way to make things better, no matter what it took.

“That does sound like a serious situation. Are you sure that this can’t be resolved more immediately? Perhaps with mediation or assistance? Professor Peach is a very skilled counselor.”

“This isn’t something that we can talk through. I need to give Ruby time and space, and hope. She doesn’t want to talk about it with anyone, and I can’t go against her wishes because I’m in the wrong. Even if they don’t seem like the best way for her to be coping.” Yang shook her head sadly. “I hate not being able to do anything.”

“If it’s any consolation, going on a sabbatical is certainly doing something.” Ozpin sighed. “From the way that you have described your situation, I can believe that a sabbatical may be the best option. However, there would certainly have to be stringent conditions. You would need to keep up with your academics, be able to live independently, and constantly train yourself physically.”

“I’m confident that I can handle watching or listening to recorded lectures and keep up with my work remotely. As for income and physical training, I think we both know how to kill two birds with one stone, pun intended.” Yang smiled and ruffled her wings for emphasis, but she didn’t have the energy for it to be as genuine as usual.

“A provisional license.” Ozpin sighed. “Your combat prowess as an individual are well in advance of what I would expect from a freshman, and indeed they are comparable to sophomores, but you still lack a great deal of experience, knowledge, and wisdom.” 

“I have a lot of experience. I grew up fighting, and I spent a lot of time living in the wild before I came here. And if I don’t do this I won’t be a sophomore. So unless you have a better idea, and I refuse to accept handouts, that’s what it has to be.” 

“True. I will consider your request, and confirm what you have told me of your situation with Miss Rose.” Ozpin put his hand up as Yang began to object. “Without revealing your intentions, or attempting to learn of any specifics. If your professors agree, I will let you know by the end of tomorrow. Expect to be rigorously academically examined before you are allowed to leave.”

“I’ll do that. Thanks, Professor.” Yang inclined her head in his direction and turned around to go back into the elevator that was the only exit.

“Oh, and one more thing.”

“Yeah?” Yang turned back around to face Ozpin.

“I hope you find whatever it is you’re looking for.” Ozpin gave her a kindly smile.

“Me too, old man.” Yang muttered to herself as she stepped into the elevator. “Me too.”

###### Weiss

Something was going on with Yang. For days, she had spent most of her time in the library, studying more than normal, and her normal was a respectable amount, even by Weiss’ strict standards. Furthermore, she was largely left to do this independently at Blake’s request. It was reasonable, given that the library was rarely devoid of people, but still a somewhat sudden change of behavior from Yang’s previous dogged but struggling maintenance of a healthy routine of the last few days. It appeared that she had found something concrete to work towards, though she refused to reveal what it was.

Ruby as well, had spent most of her time studying sign language. Weiss found that xe had to prompt Ruby to work on her classwork more often than usual, and that she had more difficulty than usual concentrating on it, but it was clearly making Ruby happy to learn it, and to share various bits and pieces of information about her progress and the language itself, so Weiss couldn't bring xyrself to stop her.

Ever since identifying xyr latent attraction to Ruby, Weiss had had difficulty resisting her in general, or even so much as speaking to her without xyr attention drifting off to thoughts of whether her arm had a vibrate function, or of how much xe enjoyed just watching her babble away happily about various subjects. Not to mention the intermittent lewd thoughts that would intrude on perfectly innocent thoughts of meals and group activities.

Meals. Brothers, how xe missed Yang’s cooking, even from the very day of the incident. That was probably the worst part, as far as the slings and arrows of everyday life went. Excellent food was something xe had been raised on, though it often paled in comparison to the more intimate charms of Yang’s cooking, being reduced to cafeteria food was simply torturous. 

Even during combat training, the four of them operated strangely. Ruby and Yang just couldn't seem to work together in close proximity, one of them would always shy away from the other, or simply pay less attention to fighting their opponent than to their teammate. It was generally manageable, Ruby and Yang’s styles weren’t especially complimentary, but it interfered with their ability to support each other in situations where they ended up together on the field of battle.

And then everything in their life was upended once again. One day, Yang gathered seven people before her for an important announcement, and simply proceeded to spill it all out.

“I’m leaving.” Yang shrugged limply, and everyone just stared at her.

“What do you mean, leaving?” Ruby’s voice was barely audible, despite the silence of the room.

“I’m taking a trip. I’m going to learn remotely for the rest of the semester while I travel around Anima and figure some things out.” She smiled sadly. “I probably won’t be back until it’s time for final exams.”

“Two months?” Weiss couldn’t keep the concern out of xyr voice. “Is that really necessary?”

Yang looked surprised by Weiss’ expression of worry. “I’d probably stay away longer if it wasn't essential that I come back for finals.” She shot a mournful glance at Ruby.

“Does this have something to do with you and Ruby’s...?” Blake trailed off, none of them were even sure what was going on between her and Ruby.

“Yeah.” Yang just nodded. “It’s Ruby’s call not to tell you what happened, but yeah. I think the best thing I can do right now is let there be some distance between us. A couple thousand miles should be enough.” She smiled halfheartedly.

“Yang!” Nora launched herself at Yang and embraced her with all her strength, burying her face into the wing that wrapped around her. “I don’t want you to go!” It sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

“Me neither. Sorry. This is all my fault.” Yang hugged back just as hard.

Tentatively, Weiss approached them and wrapped xyr arms around Yang from behind. “I will miss you, Yang Branwen, and I look forward to your return.”

“I mean, I’m not leaving right this instant.” Again, Yang was unbalanced by Weiss’ brazen display of affection. “Tomorrow morning I’ll stop by Patch and visit my mom before I go, then I’m heading off to Mistral.”

“Why Anima? You hate Mistral.” Blake joined the hug as well.

“I want to try and figure out what happened to the clan. At least try to make sure that anyone who died there got a proper burial.” Yang left the name of one person in particular who had died there unspoken. 

“What are you going to do after that? Two months is a long time.” Pyrrha got up and joined the hug as well.

“Just... wander. Take some time to be alone in the wild and figure things out, probably take up a few hunting jobs. I managed to get approved for a provisional license early.”

“Wandering in the wild alone? That’s dangerous.” Ren frowned and joined the hug.

“I can take care of myself. I have experience.” Yang was starting to be overwhelmed by the number of people surrounding her.

“You’d better, you big, slightly scary knucklehead.” Jaune joined the hug.

“We’ll be here when you get back.” Pyrrha slipped in right next to Jaune.

The only one left who hadn’t joined the hug was Ruby. She just looked on with a pained expression, her feet shuffling restlessly. “That might be the right thing to do.” She admitted it reluctantly, then shrugged, and left the room. Weiss once again worried over what exactly had happened between them, and a small, coldly calculating part of xyr wondered how it might affect xyr hopes of someday bringing them both into xyr relationship with Blake.

“This really is necessary, isn’t it?” Blake stared in awe at the door Ruby had just left through, speaking what everyone was thinking.

“I suppose it is.” Weiss pursed xyr lips, and shifted to hug Blake just a little bit tighter. The press of six bodies around xyr was unexpectedly comforting, something that xe had grown so much more delightfully comfortable with of late.

“Weiss, not to be rude, but why are you in this hug?” Yang flexed her wings slightly, readjusting them to wrap around as much of everyone as she could.

“You brute.” Weiss gently rapped xyr knuckles against Yang’s scalp. “Have you not even noticed how much I appreciate cooking with you, your presence, and, however painful it may be to experience, your wit?”

“No. Not really. You’ve been doing a good job of hiding that.” Yang looked at Weiss, flabbergasted.

“Perhaps.” Weiss let xyr voice soften. “That is a habit I have been attempting to break.” Blake’s influence had gone a long way to bring xyr more comfort with openness. Just being around her was often stabilizing, and the recent days had brought xyr more need than ever to be as open as possible for the sake of xyr own well-being and their relationship.

“And I have been relatively out of it lately, huh?” Yang chuckled. “Glad to see you shedding that icy shell though, Ice Queen.”

“Fool.” Weiss couldn’t muster the slightest amount of annoyance at the nickname as xe rolled xyr eyes.

“Actually, Ruby is the one most closely associated with the Fool.” Blake sounded as if she was making a joke, but no one seemed to get it. “Oh, right, Ruby’s the only one who would get that. It’s a tarot joke.”

Weiss chuckled, and kissed Blake on the cheek. “I’m sure that it’s quite funny.”

“You’re obligated to say that.” Blake pouted.

“Do you really think that _I_ would pretend to be amused, just because you’re my girlfriend?” Weiss placed a hand over xyr heart in mock shock.

“Yes, you big softie.” Blake kissed Weiss on the cheek as well, and most of the room cooed.

“You’re so adorable!” Nora screamed. “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Ren put a hand on Nora’s shoulder and they both faded to monochrome as Nora calmed down. “There, there.” They shuffled out of the hug together, and the others followed in their wake.

“You guys.” Yang shook her head. “I’ll miss you, all of you.”

“We can see you off tomorrow too, right?” Pyrrha seemed especially reluctant to release the hug they shared.

“Of course. I just didn’t want to wait until the last minute to tell you. I only got approval to do this today.” Yang smiled sadly. “It’s what I’ve been working so hard towards lately.”

“I’m glad that you’re able to do what you need to get done.” Blake didn’t let go of Yang. “I wish I could be there too.”

“Hey, come on, we can’t be with each other all the time. Gotta have some space every once in a while.” Yang shook her head ruefully. “I’ll miss you too.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever, you homing pigeon.” Blake mumbled into Yang’s shoulder.

“If I’m a pigeon then you guys are home. All of you.” Yang headbutted Blake gently. “Really though. Pigeon? That’s probably the worst thing you’ve ever called me.” Her voice was quiet and soft.

Watching the scene unfold was a strange experience. It was almost as if Weiss was watching xyrself part from Blake. Maybe the chances of a polyamourous relationship were better than none after all, though xe really shouldn’t be thinking such things at a time like this.

Someone softly tapped Weiss’ shoulder. “You look like you could use a hug too.” Pyrrha smiled gently, her arms outstretched.

“Yes.” Weiss hugged Pyrrha tightly. “Thank you.” Pyrrha had such a tendency to just be steadily present in Weiss’ life, and to be aware and empathetic towards xyr. They had bonded over a shared burden of expectation imposed upon them by others, and her presence was usually strangely calming.

“I just realized something weird.” Jaune announced, no longer hugging anyone. “We’ve all known each other for less than two moths. Yang’s going to be gone for longer than the eight of us have been friends.”

“Time is weiiiiiiird.” Nora groaned. “I bet waiting is gonna feel like it passes way faster, for plot convenience or something.”

“Hopefully.” Weiss dearly wanted to see Yang and Ruby doing better. Hopefully, time and motion would accomplish that, else xe may end up back in Atlas. No, even if Beacon ended, xe was not going back to Jacques. That much was certain.

###### Ruby

Ruby didn’t talk to Yang for the rest of the day. She wasn’t sure what to say, really. She never was, especially lately. On the morning of the big event, everyone gathered near the docks and saw Yang off to Vale, where she would be taking another airship to Patch, then Mistral.

There were more hugs between Yang and the others, something that left Ruby feeling alone, even though she couldn’t bear the thought of hugging any of them right now. Goodbyes and assurances that she couldn’t concentrate passed through the air as time crawled onward.

Finally, Yang stood in front of Ruby, a respectful yard away. She looked like she was about to say something, then stopped, then started again. “I’m sorry. I’ll be back, and you can call me if you ever want to.” She inclined her head.

“Bye.” Ruby waved halfheartedly, not venturing any closer to Yang, nor shying away. She didn’t really want Yang to leave, just like she hadn’t wanted her to stop being her girlfriend before, but she couldn’t deny that there was a dense pit of anxiety in her stomach that was already a little bit lighter knowing that she could be away from Yang for an extended period of time.

“Right, bye.” Yang returned the wave, looked over everyone one more time, and turned around, suitcase in hand, her hair shining in the light of the morning sun. She’d left most of her stuff behind at Beacon, so she had to come back eventually. She had to.

“Among golden rays of the heart’s fire, and though my days be most dire, in this time it is to you I turn, now stand back and watch me burn.” Ren recited.

“Hey, you've never recited a poem in honor of my departure.” Nora pouted at Ren, loosening the silent tension in the group.

“We’ve never been separated by more than a few hundred feet.” Ren deadpanned.

“You could at least compliment my ass.” Nora crossed her arms over her chest.

“How do you know I don’t?” Ren subtly braced themself.

“Awww, you do care!” Nora melted and scooped Ren into a crushing hug.

Everyone chuckled lightly at their antics, but Ruby just felt more isolated again. She still couldn’t hug anyone. Rather than quietly stew in her frustrations, she started to practice a little bit of sign language. She idly signed whatever words she remembered and that drifted into her mind. _Pain, lonely, fear, hurt._

“Hey Ruby.” Nora drew Ruby’s attention, then, unexpectedly, signed something herself, slowly enough for Ruby to understand. _What’s up?_

“You weren’t supposed to understand that!” Ruby startled and started to run, then stopped mid stride, her semblance nearly activated. Nora knew sign language? She cautiously glanced behind her.

Nora was advancing slowly with her palms held out, as if Ruby were a frightened animal. Which wasn’t entirely a bad comparison. No one was supposed to know what she was going through. They couldn’t. Everyone else was painfully obviously trying not to stare, except Weiss, who was watching with concern.

“It’s okay. Want to just hang out a little bit?” Nora smiled gently. “Somewhere else?”

Ruby stared at Nora cautiously. She wanted to leave. But she also didn’t want to be alone. “Maybe.”

“Let’s go back to your dorm and tell everyone else to stay out then.” Nora nodded confidently, and started to walk with Ruby in tow. “We can turn the lights off and make sure the blinds are covered. Would you like that?”

“Yeah. That actually sounds like a really good idea.” Ruby found herself nodding and running ahead of Nora. She had a strong urge to be in the dark and quiet. Maybe she was just emotionally overstimulated, so much was happening and there was so much to be conflicted over.

The walk was strangely peaceful, and Nora didn’t say anything else on the way, for which Ruby was extremely grateful. She hoped Nora wouldn’t try to ask questions about what was going on.

When they reached her dorm, Ruby just climbed into her bed and collapsed, suddenly too drained for anything else. She managed to grab a blanket and wrap herself in it as Nora made the room dim and quiet. 

Yang had left, and she wouldn’t be coming back for a while. The thought made her queasy and guiltily relieved at the same time. She cried a little bit, thinking of Yang. She wasn’t sure if she was crying because Yang was gone or if she was only able to cry because she knew Yang wasn’t around. 

The entire time, Nora was just there, in the room, not looking at or trying to talk to Ruby, but not ignoring her either. She was grateful.

When she stopped crying, Ruby peered over the edge of her bed at Nora curiously, then rapped her knuckles to garner Nora’s attention away from her scroll.

Nora looked up with a smile. “Verbal communication or sign language?”

It felt nice to be asked that question. Ruby considered it a bit. She could use some practice anyway, even if she would probably need to supplement it with a few spoken words. _Sign language._

 _So, you’ve been repressing stuff._ Nora started completely bluntly. _Let me talk you out of it?_

 _I don’t want to talk about it. Ever._ Ruby crossed her arms and got ready to retreat back into her bed.

 _You don’t have to tell people the reasons why. There’s plenty Ren and I don’t talk about, but you can’t just pretend you don’t feel things. That doesn’t work, Ren’s tried a lot of times._ Nora frowned seriously.

_I do have to. I have to be their leader, and I can’t just let them comfort me all the time._

_You’re not my leader. Or Ren’s, Pyrrha’s, or Jaune’s. You’ve been shutting us out and pretending to be fine even though you obviously aren’t with us too._ Nora glared.

 _You’d tell Weiss or Blake._ Ruby shrugged. At this point she almost just wanted them to leave her alone. She couldn’t express how much she loved them all anymore anyway. Couldn’t touch anyone. But she still had to be a Beacon Student to stop everyone’s lives from getting messed up, and so that she could protect people herself, alone. Like the old hunters.

_But they can already tell something’s wrong. You don’t have to tell them about the past, but they deserve to know about how you feel right now._

Ruby rubbed her eyes. Why couldn’t emotions just make sense like killing Grimm does. She could do that all day, with sane amounts of rest. _I can’t express myself._

_Why not?_

_Because I need to be able to touch people for that and I can’t touch anyone._ Ruby signed rapidly, maybe sloppily, but Nora seemed to get it.

 _That must make it hard._ Nora seemed at a loss. _Now I wanna hug you but..._

 _Me too._ Ruby sighed. _I need a hug. I need to get better to be able to touch people, but to get better I need comfort from touching people._

_When was the last time you had one of your cookies?_

_I haven’t gotten any more since the morning we got back from the hospital._ Ruby shrugged. 

_Do you think that might help you relax?_

Ruby furrowed her brow. _Maybe, actually. It is irrational of me to be afraid of this, and it does help with irrational brain stuff a lot. And general anxiety._

_And what about being lonely?_

Ruby flinched. She’d hoped Nora wouldn’t ask about that. _Weiss and Blake are dating. It never feels like I should be around them, because I like them too but I’m just a third wheel._

 _Me too._ Nora nodded sadly.

 _What?_ Was Nora saying she liked Weiss and Blake too, or someone else other than Ren?

 _There’s Ren, Jaune, Pryrrha, you, Yang..._ Nora tried to count on her fingers while speaking sign language. It didn’t work. _Everyone but Weiss and Blake, actually._

 _Why are you telling me this?_ Ruby blinked. She couldn’t really believe what she’d heard. Was Nora about to ask her out or something?

 _Cause I’m bad at keeping quiet._ Nora shrugged. _Not that I’m asking you out or something. I’m still too scared to tell Ren I like them, and they’re the one I’d like to date the most. You should just tell Blake and Weiss you keep thinking you’re not welcome around them sometimes though._

 _Should._ Ruby shrugged, and drew her knees up to her chest. 

_Need to. For your own health. If you don’t I will._ Nora glared sternly at Ruby.

Not daring to look at Nora, Ruby thought about it. She should, and needed to. _Okay. Thanks. I’m tired now, gonna just read._ She smiled, just a little bit. She had just had an entire conversation in sign language, even if Nora had been going slowly and repeated herself sometimes, and she had had to stop to think of the next sign a lot of times. That much was nice at least. The rest might get better over time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me in the ANs, begging for comments: Please, may I have a crumb of serotonin?


	27. It all comes back to secrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the last part of this chapter has some near smut. It's monochrome light bondage, and of course horny blood drinking, though they don't actually take off their clothes, except for Weiss' top. You can just skip it if you aren't interested, there's nothing especially plot relevant past it.

###### Raven

Raven had fallen into a routine. It was strange, spending her time with two of her three old teammates after all this time. Qrow had gotten into contact with her via scroll, and she had refused to tell him where she was, lest he suspect the new location of the Spring Maiden. He’d asked about Daisy too, not that he even knew her name, but she’d been silent on that subject, and Summer and Tai had agreed to be as well. That much they could all agree on, at least.

It would probably be best to move on before Qrow happened to come and simply visit Summer, Tai, or Ruby, but the message she had sent to Ruby had simply sat unanswered for days now. Summer said that it would be best not to pressure Ruby with a follow-up, so she just waited, and tried to come to terms with everything that had happened.

Meals were tolerable. Tai was a good cook, and even if the two of them weren’t on friendly terms yet, Raven barely managed to tolerate him, mostly because of Summer’s vigilance. A careful touch on the arm or a knowing look was enough for Raven to momentarily swallow her anger and resentment along with her food.

DNA test results had come back from the hospital, and as they suspected, she was a Faunus. It still felt strange to think of herself as such, but it did explain the way that the small of her back would sometimes ache in the cold, or the strange sense of rightness she had found in her bird form. Her shitbag “father” had probably been cheated on by their mother, then mutilated them at birth. 

Qrow hadn’t deigned to share his feelings about their newly discovered ancestry with her. They hadn’t had much in the way of a relationship in the past few years, not once he gave up on playing the part of the loving uncle with Yang out in the real world. She told herself that all that he was to her anymore was another one of Ozpin’s pawns.

Some nights she cried. Some nights she couldn’t. Some nights she wandered into the woods and killed as many Grimm as she could manage to attract, which was almost enough to sate her bloodlust. She wasn’t made for this kind of peaceful life. Relying on others had been an alien notion to her from birth, and it would probably always make her uncomfortable, even when it was Summer.

There were nights when she thought about just shifting to a bird and never going back. She was perfectly lucid in her bird form, but she had never spent more than a few consecutive hours in it, the idea that she could will herself into something less, or worse, fall into it by maintaining that form for too long, was terrifying, and yet darkly tempting, though she never seriously considered it. 

Daisy just tried to keep herself busy through it all, helping with chores and cleaning up after the occasional Grimm that wandered near enough the house to do some damage. Summer even let her help with the garden. She’d always wanted to have a garden, kept trying to convince Raven that it would be worth it to get a large collection of potted vegetable plants, since they moved more than once a season. Other than that she had a tendency to cling to Raven’s side, usually reflecting Raven’s dislike of Tai while lurking in her shadow. Both of them were still mourning the tribe, and Raven could reluctantly admit that her presence was calming, nearly as much as Summer’s.

One morning, Summer interrupted Raven’s breakfast tradition of making stoically accepted verbal jabs at Tai with sudden news.

“Yang texted me. She’s coming to visit, and wants me to pick her up at the airport.” Summer smiled vibrantly as she turned to Raven. “She wants to talk to you again!”

“That’s good.” Raven just nodded, careful not to let herself be too excited in front of Tai. It had been long enough that she was starting to worry, especially with Ruby’s lack of response to her request to design and build a new foot.

“Do you ever let your guard down anymore?” Tai just never managed to keep his damn mouth shut. She’d liked that about him once.

“Not around you.” Raven spat back. “Shrivel and die like the coward you are.”

“You know what. No.” Tai’s eyes narrowed as he glared at Raven. “I’m tired of taking all the shit for this. You could have come back. Summer told you to come back. I called you, and left you so many messages, trying to apologise. But you’re too proud, you’d rather become a bandit than come crawling back to someone who slighted you.”

“Oh really, I could have come back? For what? So that I could be called a liar, and whispered about behind my back as you spent the rest of your life doubting me and wishing you had married Summer instead? Well congratulations, you got what you fucking wanted, and I got to raise my daughter away from any of Ozpin’s bullshit, only for her to go and get herself wrapped up in it anyway!” Raven seethed, her hand toying idly with Omen’s handle, even if she probably couldn’t even beat Tai with a missing foot.

“That’s enough.” Summer waved her hand between them, her tone naturally settling into the pattern of a leader, even after all these years. “All three of us screwed it up and now it’s over, both of you need to stop assigning blame and start focusing on how you’re going to make it up to Yang.” She pulled her keys out of her purse. “Now, I’m going to go fetch her, and when we get back you’d better be on your best behavior for your daughter. _Both_ of you.”

“Yes ma’am.” Raven and Tai chorused together, their heads hung, though they still glared at each other. Damnit, it made her feel like a dumbass teenager again.

“Good.” Summer patted their heads. It should have felt condescending, but it momentarily left Raven with a dopey grin on her face. “Between you two and a certain Maiden, try not to blow up the house while I’m gone, okay?” She was joking, of course. Daisy was the least destructive of the three of them, even if she probably had the most potential to be.

“Sure.” Raven rolled her eyes, trying to at least maintain a veneer of antagonism when in fact Summer’s presence had a tendency to completely drain her of it.

“Great, I’ll be right back then.” Summer kissed Tai on the forehead and left the house.

###### Yang

It was a relief for Yang to see her mom again. She forgave what Raven said to her a while ago, and honestly would have visited sooner if she hadn’t been burning the candle for the sake of her journey. 

Yang didn’t waste a second to grab onto Raven and crush her in a double winged hug the moment she opened the door. “Hey mom.”

Raven was stiff with surprise for a moment, but she relaxed quickly into the hug, even if her dark red aura was somewhat cushioning it’s force. “Yang. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Yang patted her mom’s back a little bit before she let go of the hug, an old gesture that Vernal had used to comfort her. “That news fucked us both up. We’re still responsible for our actions, but it doesn’t have to be the end as long as we can change and try to make things right.” Or so she hoped. She still felt guilty about how she had learned what she did at the worst possible time, but it _was_ beyond her control. 

When Yang mentioned Vernal’s death, Raven visibly swallowed a lump in her throat. “How did you ever grow up to be so emotionally intelligent?” 

“Vernal.”

“Right.” Raven nodded slowly, then seemed to realize that the doorway was cramped as Yang shifted her wings awkwardly. “Come in, I had Daisy make us coffee.”

“Daisy is here?” Yang’s emotions cycled through delight, surprise, and confusion. “Why did you send Daisy here? And when? You came here alone when you portaled to me.”

“She’s important. That’s all I can say.” Raven grit her teeth, something that would normally be enough for Yang to back off.

“Of course she’s important. She’s the only noncombatant you let stay in the clan. Why though, why would you go through all the trouble of taking care of her, and even saving her before you save Vernal?” Yang narrowed her eyes. Now that she thought about it, it was an incredibly suspicious thing to do. “What’s going on?”

“If I told you, it would only drag you in. I know you, you’re my daughter. You’d end up doing what you thought was right, even if it meant associating yourself with _him_.” Raven spat. “Well I’m done giving a shit about what’s right. I’m going to protect the people I have left, and I won’t let you sacrifice yourself for Ozpin’s schemes. So no, I won’t tell you.”

“Secrets, it all comes back to secrets. Not telling me things because you think they’ll lead to me getting hurt. Well, if you had told me I had a fucking half sister in the first place Vernal would still be alive! I’m fucking done with secrets!” Yang glared, her wings unfurled as much as she could in the relatively narrow entryway in a display of aggression. She sucked in a deep breath, trying to gather her thoughts. “You hate Ozpin’s guts because he didn’t tell you important shit, and now you’re doing the same thing to me, aren’t you?” 

“Fine then, let’s take a seat and discuss this like adults. Over a hot drink.” Raven’s voice was icy as she turned on her heel and started aggressively limping her way to the living room. When they reached it, she gestured to Tai’s armchair and gave a command. “Sit.”

Yang sat, her wings draped over either side of the chair. She wasn’t used to Raven looking at her like that. Coldly. She was pretty sure it was all an act, but it unsettled her. Whatever, this seemed too important to let go of, even if it meant another temporary falling out. “Well?”

“Hey guys!” Daisy burst into the room with a tray in hand, no doubt bringing the aforementioned coffee. On seeing the body language of the others in the room, she immediately withered. “Ohhhh, this is bad timing, isn’t it? Should I just go?”

“No, your timing is excellent.” Raven beckoned Daisy to her. “You might as well hear this, and be here to demonstrate if Yang insists on being foolish. Which of course she will. Don’t leave the coffee either.”

Yang blinked flatly. That was probably the only time Raven had ever called her foolish. It was probably a good sign though, if she intended to demonstrate something. 

There was a short lull in the conversation as everyone prepared their coffee, Yang black, Raven with plenty of cream and sugar, and Daisy somewhere between the two of them.

“I’m not going to be able to dissuade you by refusing to tell you.” Raven sighed heavily, displeasure written all across her face. “But perhaps I can bring you to see reason. Yang, you are still a child. You are not prepared to face the things that await you in the life of a huntress, and I am absolutely certain that you won’t be without at least another three years of study at Beacon. You are even more unprepared for the dangers that you would face if you entangled yourself in Ozpin’s business. Even if I were to tell you all that I know of Ozpin’s secrets, you do not have the power to put that knowledge to use. It would only serve to endanger you and those around you by making you a target of the enemy, or worse, encourage you to put yourselves in danger.”

“Yeah, well, putting ourselves in danger to protect people is what hunters do. It’s literally part of the job description. Didn’t you know that, before? When you were still with team STRQ?” Raven started to answer, but Yang wasn’t done yet. “And besides, if not now, when? What arbitrary barrier do I have to pass before it’s worth telling me this? Before I deserve to know what’s really going on here? You tell me now, and maybe I can find some way to take action without having to deal with Ozpin at all. Maybe I can be ready to carve my own path, whatever happens.”

Raven grunted, and Yang knew she had won. “I have conditions.”

“What are they?”

“Most importantly, don’t let Ozpin know you know. He already uses his schools to groom people into his little sycophants, you don’t need any more of his attention. Second, you can tell your teammates, but no one else. This shit can’t spread, it’s dangerous enough to start wars if it reaches the wrong person. Third, you will not go out of your way to do anything about this until you are a licensed huntress.”

“I can do those. Was probably going to already.”

“Daisy, show her some magic.” Raven inclined her head to Daisy.

“Alright.” Daisy closed her eyes, and they suddenly lit up with a ring of what seemed to be green flames. She opened them again, and the coffee pot, which still contained some liquid, shakily began to rise off of the coffee table on which it sat. After a few seconds, it fell back down, and Daisy sighed, as if releasing pressure.

“So your semblance is telekinesis?” Yang didn’t get it. The whole flames thing was weird, and they were still there, but it must just be a semblance.

“No, that was magic.” Daisy nervously scratched the back of her head. “I’d show you some more stuff, but it’s actually a lot harder to do something minor than it is to try to destroy something with a giant ice spear and such.”

“There are five people on Remnant who have magic at any given time.” Raven interjected, just as Yang was about to express skepticism. “One of them is Ozpin, and the other four are called Maidens. One for each season, when they die they pass their power on to the last person they think of, if they’re eligible. If not, it goes to someone random. Eligible means young and a woman, with the cutoff being somewhere around the late twenties. Each Maiden is also the key to a vault in each of the four Huntsmen’s Academies, containing four incredibly powerful relics. Fall and Beacon, Spring and Haven, Winter and Atlas, Summer and Shade. The Crown of Choice, the Lamp of Knowledge, the Staff of Creation, and the Sword of Destruction, respectively. I don’t know how they work or what they do. Any questions?”

“Ozpin has magic?” Yang blurted out the weirdest thing in that massive revelation, then realized another oddity. “Also, define magic, because I already know there’s all kinds of supernatural stuff that happens.”

“You already know of the supernatural?” Raven rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, Blake’s a vampire, and Weiss’ dad cursed xyr. Those are things that happened.”

“At least that’s one speech less that I need to give.” Raven shook her head. “Still, I assume the Beacon faculty are already aware of these occurrences, and thus, your knowledge?”

“Right.”

“That’s a problem. You’ve already drawn attention to yourselves.” Raven clicked her tongue. “Anyway, as far as Ozpin goes, he reincarnates in another host every time he dies. He has magic and that comes with him. I’m not entirely sure what the method by which he reincarnates is. As far as defining magic goes, it’s the ability for a human to create something from the force of their will and magical might. People like Blake can often do otherwise impossible things, but there isn’t any supernatural power in existence that compares to magic. It’s simply its own class of power and versatility, given that it is limited only by the imagination.”

“And you don’t know why Ozpin reincarnates? That seems like a pretty big deal.” Yang manages to take most of it in stride. It’s really not that much more world-altering than Sun’s whole thing, even if that is just a claim. It is a bit more complicated, however.

“Indeed. That he won’t reveal his true age or origins, as well as those of the relics, is one of the most important reasons why I distrust him, even beyond his withholding of admittedly dangerous information.” Raven cracked her neck. “Lastly, Qrow and I can turn into birds because Ozpin gave us some magic. We were supposed to use it to gather information for him.” She chuckled. “Now I use it for my own purposes.”

“Is that why Vernal sometimes took care of a wild raven that she named Raven, and I never saw both of you in the same room?” Yang couldn’t help snickering at the memory, only for it to almost immediately turn to hurt as she remembered where Vernal was now.

“Yeah. That was me.” Raven’s sharp posture loosened as she sank subtly into the couch.

“I... I miss her.” Yang looked into her lap, then at her mom. She stood up and walked to the other side of the coffee table, then hugged Raven from the side. “I keep missing her.”

“Me too.” Raven tucked Yang’s head under her chin as she returned the hug.

“She was the one who talked you into letting me stay. I’ll never forget that.” Daisy hovered awkwardly on the fringe of the hug until Yang hooked a wing around her and pulled her in.

“You’re part of the family too you know, like a distant cousin or something.” Yang smiled at Daisy, wanting her to feel more welcome. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t bite you if you hug her.”

“Thanks.” Daisy was cautious at first, but she joined the group hug with only a little bit of grousing from Raven.

Yang wanted to stay like that for a long time, but then an alarm on her scroll went off.

“Shit, I need to get to my next airship. I haven’t even had the time to tell you I’m going to Anima yet.” She got out of the hug and turned off the alarm as she turned to Raven. “Drive me there so we can talk more?”

“No foot, remember?” Raven lifted her foot, making a point.

“Well, come with me while Summer drives us. I’ll have to explain on the way.” Yang wrapped her arm around the shoulder of Raven’s side that lacked a foot and started speedwalking out of the house. “Summer? I need a ride back!”

“Already ready for you!” Summer shouted from the car, which it seemed she hadn’t even left. 

“You’re going to Anima?” Raven climbed into the back seat as Yang urged, then followed closely behind.

“Yeah. It’s a long story. I’ll probably end up telling you a lot of it by text.” Yang buckled herself in, and Summer began the drive.

###### Weiss

“It can’t be that simple.” Weiss stared at xyr scroll. Xe couldn’t believe it was this easy. Or that it would be real, but, when gods were real, albeit only according to an eccentric Faunus that only Blake had met, everything else was already on the table, so why not? In Yang’s absence and the relative calm that accompanied it, xe had finally gotten around to following up on Blake’s inquiry about the concept of a Spring Maiden.

Xe had been fully prepared to spend hours following vague references and esoteric citations in an attempt to figure out what Blake had meant by what she said. Instead, xyr very first search had brought up a well known repository of children’s fairy tales. Specifically, “The Tale of the Four Maidens.”

“What can’t be that simple?” Blake looked up from behind the book that she had only been partially able to concentrate on.

In truth, Weiss had hoped that the distraction of some intriguing extracurricular research would help to soften the heavy blow of Yang’s absence, just as Blake was no doubt trying to distract herself from her worry. Already, the dorm felt far too quiet without Yang’s loud and bright energy, even compared to the muted atmosphere that had prevailed in more recent times.

“I believe I have found an explanation for what you overheard as Raven was taken to the hospital. The Spring Maiden.” Weiss texted Blake a link to the story. “In brief, four young women once received magical powers from an old wizard, and that magic is passed on to this very day when it’s vessel dies. They were known as the Winter, Spring, Fall, and Summer Maidens.”

“That does seem too simple.” Blake frowned contemplatively. “And it seems weird that that kind of power would be kept secret when they could be using magic to fight Grimm.”

“No, it makes sense. Knowledge is power, far more so than raw might.” Weiss speculated. “If this power is passed on when it’s wielder dies, it would likely do so following some form of rule or pattern. In that case, the current host could be murdered by someone with malicious intent, and the power stolen. It may be better to keep it secret and attempt to avoid hostile interdiction than to use it frivolously to fight Grimm in an era when the Grimm are largely under control.”

“We should tell Yang. She might know more about why the Spring Maiden would even be a bandit in the first place, since I’m pretty sure that Raven basically yeeted the Spring Maiden at Summer.” Blake’s use of the word yeet barely even made Weiss flinch.

“Good point. More information on Raven would probably be useful in understanding the situation at play here. I’ll share all of this with her and Ruby.” Weiss sent the messages, though Ruby probably wouldn’t answer for a while. She had just recently said something about there being business afoot and run off to the workshop, wings flapping erratically as she cackled. Weiss had a sneaking suspicion that she had made some kind of pun.

“You know, it’s very interesting, watching you make deductions like that.” Blake set aside her book and strode behind Weiss, kneading xyr shoulders with firm hands. Something in her demeanor was different. “I love how intelligent you are, princess.” _Oh._

Weiss swallowed a sudden abundance of saliva, xyr thoughts drifting back to their conversation following the events of the night after their first date. Xe had gone into embarrassing detail with Blake of exactly what kinds of things xe thought about when xe was alone in the dark. Xe had wanted Blake to surprise xyr, and the first time afterward that she had drunk Weiss’ blood had been almost disappointing, in a way, though once it began in earnest was as excellent as ever. Princess was what they had agreed Blake would call xyr during the scene.

“It always makes me want you, you know.” Blake leaned down and nibbled possessively at Weiss' ear. “I need some of your blood, Weiss. And I want you to give it freely.”

“Very well, if you insist.” Weiss sighed and fiddled nonchalantly with the collar of xyr suit jacket, concealing xyr excitement, and the thrill of heat pooling in xyr body as best xe could. There was no way that Blake couldn’t hear xyr rapid heartbeat, maybe even smell xyr arousal, a thought that only made said effects more pronounced.

“Not yet.” Blake kissed the back of Weiss’ neck, then effortlessly lifted xyr into her arms and carried xyr to her bed. Her voice was husky as she laid Weiss down and whispered into xyr ear. “You’re going to have to beg for it.” She ran her arms down Weiss’ and pulled xyr hands up over xyr head.

Weiss felt something soft wrap around xyr wrists and moments later heard the telltale click of a mechanism locking into place. Xe looked up to see that fuzzy black handcuffs now secured xyr hands around a bedpost, sending another thrill of heat down xyr spine. Even as xe reminded xyrself that this would end with a single spoken word, the thought that xe was now very thoroughly at Blake’s mercy filled xyr mind. 

“Beg for it?” Xe nearly whimpered at the end. It was hard not to do so immediately, to surrender instantaneously to Blake’s smouldering gaze.

“That’s right. I might need blood to survive, but you need me to drink your blood. You crave the feeling of utter powerlessness that comes with having fangs sunk into the tender flesh of your neck and the pleasure you get out of it.” Blake slowly begins to undo the top buttons of Weiss' shirt as she growls into xyr ear, then looks down at xyr hungrily. “But it isn’t just the pleasure, is it? You moan the entire time, even when it hurts.” 

“You’re wrong.” Weiss knew Blake was right, had even told her all of this in the first place. Being taunted with it did more than bring an embarrassed flush to xyr face as xe rubbed xyr thighs together as subtly as possible. Xe was so vulnerable before the molten amber eyes that bore into xyr with launguid intensity, so utterly exposed. Free to react as xe felt, even when doing so brought forth moans and other lewd vocalizations that would have put xyr to shame around anyone else.

“Don’t worry princess, you don’t have to admit to what I already know.” Blake looked down at the exposed skin of Weiss’ upper body, now covered only by a lacy black bra, the jacket hung harmlessly around xyr arms, her gaze almost predatory. Weiss wanted her to descend upon xyr with overwhelming force, but instead Blake just leaned down and lightly kissed a spot on xyr collarbone. “You can just relax and let me touch you. And then, when you decide that you can’t wait any longer for me to take what I want, you’ll beg for it.”

Every one of Blake’s touches burned through Weiss’ skin in the best way possible. She was so light, not because she saw Weiss as delicate, but because she wanted to be tortuously subtle with what stimulation she gave. It drove xyr crazy with need. 

“Harder.” What was supposed to be an order came out as a breathy moan as Blake trailed her canines along the skin of Weiss’ belly.

“Harder?” Blake nipped playfully at the thin strip of skin between Weiss’ belly button and the top of xyr pants. “What do you want to be harder?”

“Kisses, bites, touches, everything. _Please._ ” Weiss shuddered as xe submitted just a little bit more, xyr legs instinctively wrapping around Blake’s waist and trying to pull her closer.

“Anything for my princess.” Blake pushed Weiss’ legs back down to the bed, then set herself on top of them so that xe wouldn’t be able to raise them again. 

The possessive, _my_ , caressed Weiss’ thoughts like a soft hand. It relaxed xry, reassured xyr. Blake was taking responsibility over xyr, claiming possession in a way that was both freeing and erotic. 

Blake finally exerted the force Weiss craved as she kissed right above the top of xyr bra and began to suck with painful force as she swirled her tongue around, leaving a hickey that would hopefully leave Weiss marked for days. Her hands dug into Weiss’ ribs as she did, not quite hard enough to bruise.

“Ah!” Weiss moaned filthily. The pain was a sharp, light thing. It made xyr want to hold Blake to xyr neck and never let her go, xe needed more of it, and more of Blake’s touch. Xe wanted to be covered in her marks. Instinctively, xe tried to wrap xyr arms around Blake as she made another hickey, higher this time.

“You make the most adorably slutty sounds.” Blake cooed between hickeys, reaching up to gently scratch under Weiss’ chin, eliciting a whimper and a number of stiff motions as Weiss struggled for more bodily contact with her. “I could just do this all day. Keep you here for as long as I like, even when you do beg for me to drink your blood. It would be so precious, watching you get ever more desperate and needy, even beyond the point of having given in.” She grinned mercilessly, then pressed her face into Weiss’ neck and inhaled heavily. “Maybe you had better beg for it before I decide you deserve consequences for making me wait this long to drink you.”

That was enough for Weiss to snap. After a lifetime of propriety, of control, the idea of degrading into a slut for someone xe loved was incredible. There was nothing xe wanted more. Xe couldn’t take it anymore, xe needed more contact, more submission, more of Blake’s teasing and taunting and touching. “Please,” xe wined, “please drink my blood.”

“Why should I?” Blake watched Weiss impassively, not giving anything away.

“I’ll do anything. I’ll humiliate myself for you, just please! Please take me.” Weiss prostrated xyrself as best xe could while being restrained, stretching xyr neck to give Blake the best possible view. 

“That is tempting. But please, be more specific. What exactly do you think you could do to earn this?” Blake momentarily flashed her teeth, fangs fully extended. Weiss whimpered again.

Weiss couldn’t even think, xe didn't have the brain power to come up with some idea, so instead xe just spewed fantasies xe hadn’t shared before. “I’ll show off my hickeys, and tell anyone who asks exactly how I got them. I’ll make sure everyone knows how filthy I am.”

A small growl of arousal was the only warning Weiss had before Blake finally bit xyr. Xyr hands strained in their cuffs as xe jerked wildly, pleasure crashed over xyr, radiating from both xyr neck and xyr crotch. The feeling of xyr blood slipping away into Blake’s mouth drew it out, then let xyr come down mellowly from xyr peak.

As she released Weiss, Blake gently licked the hole in xyr neck that quickly healed over. Then she reached up and easily removed the handcuffs, gently rubbing Weiss’ writists. “Mmmm, I could make a habit of this. How are you doing?” She pulled Weiss into a hug.

Weiss toyed with Blake’s long hair, glad to be able to touch her again. “Very good.” Xe could feel that xe needed a shower, but that would come later, no pun intended.

“Good.”

Weiss snuggled into Blake as they relaxed back into the bed, shamelessly burning xyr face into her chest.

“So, when I bit you, did you come?” Blake’s smirk could be felt, even without being able to see her face.

“Yes.” Weiss flushed with more than just xyr recent exertion. Out of the moment, it was incredibly embarrassing, as was what xe had said.

“How do you just keep getting hotter?” Blake chuckled, and scratched gently along Weiss’ scalp. “Gods, someday I’m going to fucking ravish you.” The part about not being ready yet was pointedly left out.

Weiss just whimpered.

“Sorry, sorry. That’s not really what I should be talking about right now, even if you seem pretty happy with the idea.” Blake chuckled again, a comfortable sound that Weiss felt, thanks to xyr head being pressed up against her chest. “You sure you don’t need anything more than some attention?”

“I do feel the need to assure you that I didn’t mean what I said at the end there.” Weiss mumbled into Blake’s chest, suddenly embarrassed by xyr behavior.

“That’s not surprising.” Blake reassured Weiss and gave xyr a quick kiss on the forehead.. “Personally, I meant everything I said about how hot you are.”

“I-you-” Weiss stammered, completely at a loss for words. “That was so hot, in its entirety.”

Just then, Weiss’ scroll vibrated.

“Shit, I didn’t have a chance to turn it off.” Weiss rolled xyr as xe grabbed it, only to see that it was Yang. After a quick glance at Blake, xe settled into her embrace so that they could both read it.

_Yeah, mom just told me about that, actually. There’s a lot more shit going on, but I don’t think it would be a good idea to tell over text. Have Ruby ask her whenever she goes to visit her parents next._

“That’s... interesting.” Blake gently took the scroll from Weiss’ hands and put it aside. “But since there’s nothing we can do about it right now, let’s just focus on winding down.”

“Mmmm, fair.” Weiss tried not to think too hard about Yang’s reply and instead focused on the gentle warmth emanating from Blake. “I love you.”

Blake gasped slightly, her muscles tensing for the briefest instant before she relaxed again. “I love you too.” It felt good to hear.


	28. The First Steps Towards A New Dawn

###### Ruby

By the time evening came, Ruby was bored of working on Raven’s new foot, and thus no longer distracted from her loneliness, which, despite everything, was only made worse with the knowledge that Yang wasn’t around. She plodded back to her dorm, at least satisfied that she had a good concept for the design of the foot. There was something else she should really do though.

“Hey guys.” Ruby inclined her head to Blake and Weiss, who were cuddling in Blake’s bed. Gods, she wished that was her.

“Did you read the message I sent you, about the Maidens?” Weiss didn’t bother to move from xyr spot to talk.

“Yeah.” Ruby hadn’t, but she needed to talk about something else. “But there’s something else I wanted to tell you guys.” She sat down on the edge of her own bed.

“What’s up?” Blake naturally shifted in place to face Ruby with a yawn. Something about the motion seemed hurried.

“I feel sort of unwanted. You’re pretty much always together when you’re in a room and you spend a lot of time together doing something you won’t tell me about with Coco and them. I’m just a third wheel if we aren’t doing school stuff.” Ruby squirmed in place, she wished she could do this in sign language, it was so much more comfortable.

“Ruby, you aren’t a third wheel at all.” Weiss admonished. “You’re our leader and our close friend, you’re my partner, and you’re right that I haven’t been around much lately. We’re working through a lot of things and have looked to Coco for a great deal of advice. Furthermore, I will admit that we haven’t been sure how to act around you, now that you seem to have suddenly become uncomfortable with touch. It is a difficult situation.”

“Yeah.” Ruby scratched the back of her head and drew her wings around herself awkwardly, suddenly even more self-conscious than usual. “It’s made talking to people sort of weirder than usual.” Maybe that had something to do with how much of a relief sign language with Nora had been, it being impossible to sign if you were too physically close to someone.

“It’s still our fault.” Blake said, gently removing Weiss from her lap. “We might be spending a little bit too much time together.” She looked at Weiss, lip caught between her teeth.

Weiss’ face fell, and xe clicked xyr tongue. “You may be right. Especially given our-my more,” xyr gaze flicked briefly to Ruby and back again, “long term intentions. We have been attempting to do this too doggedly.” 

“Our.” Blake took hold of Weiss’ hand.

Weiss smiled, and squeezed the hand back, then tsked, suddenly chastising xyrself. “And we have just now gone and discussed it in front of someone without explaining ourselves to them. Honestly, I haven’t treated a member of my family this rudely since I last spoke with Whitley. I’m sorry Ruby.”

“A member of your family?” Ruby grinned broadly at Weiss, she couldn’t have held back if she’d tried.

“Of course.” Weiss crossed xyr arms with a huff. “You’re far more important to me than a certain other family member will ever be, so why should you be anything less?”

“Weiss...” Ruby sniffed, on the verge of happy tears. She wanted to hug xyr so badly. “You’re really important to me too. I hoped I could be family with my team for as long as I knew about my parents’ team.” The hope for the other kind of a family hadn’t even been there until pretty recently.

“I...” Blake looked down at her lap, lips pursed, “I haven’t really done well with family before. Leaving my parents, and then you-know-who. But, yeah, it’s true for me too, I think.”

“We had no intention to make you feel left out, and we apologize for doing so. But please, tell us sooner if it happens again.” 

“I really should, but I probably won’t. I’m really bad about that sort of thing.” Ruby seesawed her hand. “The more awkward something is the harder it is to acknowledge it, you know?”

“That’s fine. Just, y’know, do what you can to take care of yourself, you know?” Blake smiled gently in Ruby’s direction, sending her heart racing a little.

“Yeah, I try.” Ruby nodded, relieved that they weren’t going to try to admonish her over it. They really were just accepting of the fact that some things she would never reliably get right. “Sooo, you wanna hang out sometime then?”

“There is one matter that sometimes disturbs me, in which I feel I may be able to assist you.” Weiss eyed her critically. “Why is it that all you wear is jeans and flannel?”

“I never really learned how to girl clothes, and I don’t have any idea how to fashion in general, so I just sort of picked the most sterotypically lesbian thing I could think of.” Ruby shrugged.

“What do you mean that you didn’t learn about girl clothes?” Blake asked.

“It was hard to pick up on when I was finally able to wear what I wanted. What with-” Ruby stopped. She hadn’t told them that she was trans. “Ohhhh. Fuck.” She made a noise that probably sounded constipated, but was actually indecision. “I...” There wasn’t anything to be afraid of, she knew that. So why was it always so hard to say? “I’m trans.”

“Oh. Sorry to pry.” Blake bowed her head.

“Ruby Rose.” Weiss glared at her sternly, eyes steely with determination. “I am taking you clothes shopping. And I will pay for everything.”

“Huh?” Ruby flinched and wrapped her wings around herself a little, confused by the difference in Weiss’ tone and words. 

“What I am saying is that I will personally see to it that this tragedy of a wardrobe is corrected, you dolt.” Weiss rolled xyr eyes, then spoke more gently. “Come out of there. Did you really think we’d judge you?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean I’m not afraid of it.” Ruby peered out at Weiss from behind a wing. The brief moment of warmth from xyr made her heart flutter warmly. “And hey, what do you mean, tragedy? Flannel and jeans is timeless!”

“Yes.” Weiss huffed. “The tragedy is that those are the only things you ever wear. You would look adorable in a skirt.”

“You think so?” Ruby blushed and hugged her knees to her chest, just because she felt like hugging something.

“Obviously.” Blake chimed in, rolling her eyes in a way that was scarily similar to Weiss.

“I’ll go shopping with you.” Ruby physically could not stop smiling. “Thanks Weiss. Have some ranged hugs.” She mimed hugging Weiss, something that actually made xyr blush for once.

"Here, use this." Weiss tossed something small and black and white to Ruby, where it landed at her side. "It's a gift I received from Blake, just give it back before nightfall."

Ruby looked in awe at the plush, then at Weiss. "Weiss..." She scooped it into her arms and hugged it to her chest. "You really are the sweetest partner I could have ever gotten."

###### Pyrrha

Sparring with Ruby was always an experience. She was the only person Pyrrha had ever met who fights with a scythe, which made sense, given how unwieldy they can be when used against humans. Still, the way Ruby fought managed to make it feel natural, even if Pyrrha invariably won. 

Fighting people almost felt unfair sometimes, given that nonferrous weapons were basically nonexistent, but she’d moved past holding back because of that a long time ago, when fighting and winning against people had started putting food in her and her parents’ bellies. Some people just specialized themselves to fight people, and some just specialized to fight Grimm. She was the former, and Ruby the latter.

As the buzzer sounded to begin the match, Ruby charged forward while firing at Pyrrha’s head, forcing her to raise her shield and block the shots, along with her own vision. Instinctively, Pyrrha rolled to the side, not entirely sure whether Ruby would use that moment to come at her from above, below, or the side.

It was a good guess, and Ruby’s scythe hooked around empty air where Pyrra’s neck had been as she rolled. On regaining her feet, Pyrrha jabbed at Ruby with Miló in spear form, catching the haft of Crescent Rose within its prongs. Before Ruby could transform the weapon, Pyrrha twisted, and it went flying out of her grasp.

Instead of diving for her weapon as Pyrrha expected however, Ruby began to cackle madly. Suddenly, her left hand began to shift and change, and Pyrrha watched in amazement as a hardlight chainsaw appeared from it. From behind her back, she pulled a double barreled shotgun and charged forward as the chainsaw revved, still cackling madly. “I’ve been waiting forever to have an excuse to do this! Fear the boomstick!”

Pyrrha quickly morphed Miló back into a sword and moved to parry the chainsaw as she carefully matched her shield to the shotgun’s angle. “It’s really unique!” The shotgun would do a lot of damage if it got past her guard, and it would be a lot easier to get past her guard than Yang’s gauntlets. It was enough for Pyrrha to be excited about what was going to happen next.

Rather than give Pyrrha a chance to suss out this sudden change of fighting styles however, Ruby suddenly vanished into rose petals and dashed to Pyrrha’s right, the side unguarded by her shield. Desperately, she sent out a heavy burst of magnetic force in that direction, deflecting Ruby’s chainsaw-tipped left arm at an awkward angle, only for Ruby to then immediately bring around the shotgun, which had been hovering below her waist, low enough to avoid that use of her semblance. 

The shotgun fired into Pyrrha’s chest, knocking her back and creating much needed space. Ordinarily, the best way to fight Ruby was to get inside the reach of her scythe, now it was best to keep her at a distance, and carefully avoid taking another point blank blow like that. She quickly checked her aura, and saw that she had already lost nearly a quarter, whereas Ruby’s was still nearly full.

As they clashed again, Ruby’s movements were erratic, nothing like the careful, professional footing she had when she was using a scythe. It led her into mistakes, but at the same time it made her unpredictable as she zoomed around to attack from awkward angles, often with the use of her semblance. After a little bit of nearly even back and forth between them, Pyrrha managed to begin consistently wearing down at Ruby’s aura, her reflexes and manipulation of the girl’s entire left arm reasserting themselves as assets. She could have easily wrenched Ruby about by her arm, but that wouldn’t make for useful practice at all, none of her other opponents would have entire metal body parts.

Somehow, Ruby was able to fire the shotgun more than twice without reloading it, something that took Pyrrha by surprise at first, but of course made sense, being Ruby. Still, it let her get another point blank hit in, and Pyrrha started to actually worry if she was going to lose a fight for the first time in years.

So when Pyrrha saw an opportunity, she took it. Ruby thrust the chainsaw forward at a poor angle, and Pyrrha deflected it with enough force to unbalance her, then stepped behind her and began raining heavy blows on her back. One more follow-up shot in the moment that Ruby rematerialized from her semblance was enough to sound the buzzer and end the match. She looked at the aura metes. Had forty percent of her aura left.

“OhmigoshthatwascrazyIcan’tbelieveIdidthatwell-” Ruby jumped up and down excitedly, completely unaware of the chainsaw still protruding from her hand that was worryingly near to her face.

“Ruby, the chainsaw!” Pyrrha barely held back from snorting with laughter. It shouldn’t be funny with Ruby’s aura as in the red as it was, but she was still a bit loopy from coming down from the adrenaline rush of the fight.

Hurriedly, the chainsaw turned off, and Ruby started speaking at a comprehensible pace. “I can’t believe I did that well against you, I don’t think even Weiss hasn’t gotten your aura that low!”

“You really surprised me there, but I think I’ll be able to do better next time when I know what to expect.” Pyrrha smiled, then looked at her hand. It was shaking. She felt strange.

“Yeah, but maybe I should use these babies to fight people all the time.” Ruby affectionately stroked the shotgun’s barrel before slinging it back over her shoulder. “Since they worked that much better than Crescent Rose. I don’t want to cheat on her though.” She tapped her chin anxiously.

“Is that shotgun just a shotgun?” Pyrrha leaned against the training room wall, her breathing still fast from the fight. Her fingers felt cold.

“Of course not, it’s also a pair of nunchucks with blades on the end in case I run out of ammo.” Ruby narrowed her eyes as she peered at Pyrrha. “Are you okay? Something feels off.”

“Probably?” Pyrrha wasn’t entirely sure that it was, had her breathing accelerated? It felt like she was being crushed, even as she slid down the wall into a sitting position. “I thought I might lose for a second.”

“Oh no.” Ruby rushed over, sat across from Pyrrha and looked directly at her. “Try to slow down your breathing. I think you’re having a panic attack.” She started breathing slowly and loudly, gesturing for Pyrrha to do the same.

Pyrrha tried to do as Ruby said, distracting herself by looking at Ruby and trying to time their breaths together. She hadn’t noticed how pretty Ruby’s eyes were before, mostly because Ruby pretty much never made eye contact with anyone. They were the kind of silver that seemed to flow like a liquid as she stared into them.

“Okay, good, you’re breathing normally again.” Ruby sighed heavily and leaned back, breaking eye contact as she rolled her shoulders. “Ugh, that felt kinda gross.”

Pyrrha tried not to take it personally, Ruby would probably say that about looking anyone in the eye like that. She sat for a moment, her hand still shaking slightly. She didn’t want to lose, couldn’t lose.

“Sooo, you know what’s up with that?” Ruby sat cross legged, mirroring Pyrrha’s posture.

“I felt like I might lose.” Pyrrha pursed her lips. “That hasn’t happened in a while. It’s... it’s pretty much always rough.” She hated that she even felt that way about it in the first place. She wasn’t even at Beacon so that she could win more tournaments, she was there because she wanted to be able to protect people. It wouldn’t hurt anyone here if she lost in a training match. Except herself.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“There’s always been a lot of pressure on me to win my fights. First it was because my family needed the money. Then it was because everyone just expected me too, and the more I won the worse it was. It shouldn’t even matter anymore, not here. It’s stupid of me.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being afraid, no matter what you’re afraid of.” Ruby smiled sadly. “But hey, people will understand that you aren’t perfect. The seven of us already do. It’s fine.”

“It’s not really whiplash from people seeing me lose that I’m afraid of. More, I’m sort of famous, and maybe I can use that. Be a huntress who inspires others and makes them feel safer just because I’m alive. It would probably mean that everyone would be in less danger. But to do that I have to seem perfect, just like they think I am.” Despite her emotional state, Pyrrha smiled. She’d never said that out loud before.

“Damnit!” Ruby suddenly slammed her fist uselessly against the padded floor of the training room. “I hate that I can’t hug you right now. I hate it! I hate it! I hate it!” She repeated herself, slamming her fist down with each exclamation. It was utterly unlike anything Pyrrha had seen her do before. “I hate it! I hate Yang!” She screamed gutterally as tears ran down her cheeks, not even making words anymore.

It was like watching a flare that burns bright and fast through the sky. In moments Ruby’s energy was gone, and she just slumped down, exhausted, only to fall back and spread her limbs across the floor. “Sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?” Pyrrha hesitated, no longer as concerned with her own troubles, instead instinctively wanting to help Ruby. The panic had passed, at least.

“Because I did all that. I just do that sometimes. Lose control.” Ruby flipped over, seeming to hug the floor. “I don’t wanna hate anything. I don’t hate Yang.” She didn’t sound sure of herself at all. “It feels awful. I wish I could not do it. But I just... do sometimes. Please don’t tell anyone.”

“It sounds like you have a good reason to be angry.” Pyrrha cautiously scooted closer to Ruby, into her line of sight.

“Doesn’t matter. I want to not be. I shouldn’t be. I mean, I-” Ruby stopped in a way that seemed as if she couldn’t say what she was trying to say. “I can’t hate Yang. I-” A pained expression crossed her face and she planted her face into the floor, her wings wrapping around herself tightly. “I can’t say it. Why can’t I say it?”

“If she hurt this badly you it’s fair to feel differently towards her. It’s okay to be angry.” Pyrrha laid on the floor to match Ruby’s position, save that she looked at her sparring partner. “I’m still angry with my parents sometimes.”

“You? Angry?” Ruby unplanted her face and looked at Pyrrha curiously. “But you’re so kind, and gentle.”

“So are you.” Pyrrha shrugged. “Everyone gets angry at something.”

“Not my mom.” Ruby shook her head. 

“Well, she sounds like a great mom, but what if she’s just hiding it like you’ve been?” Pyrrha tried not to think too hard about her own parents.

“I’m not really trying to hide it. I just... can’t even tell it’s there, and then it’s all there at once, just out of nowhere because of something dumb.” 

“This could be a good opportunity then. Maybe if you can figure out why you’re mad at Yang, you can try to get past it by removing the cause?”

“I...” Ruby flinched at nothing, her voice suddenly growing weak. “She hurt me, and now I can’t touch people, and it’s completely changed how I live and I can’t do this because I need to be able to have contact with people because it’s a part of how I communicate and I need it emotionally. And it still hurts. It still really hurts, but I can’t even try to get a hug to feel a little bit better.”

“Is there anything else I can do to help?”

“I bought some more weed from Coco now that Yang’s left and I’m going to bake it soon. Into cookies, I mean. I’m hoping that’ll help me be able to relax enough to try to get acclimated to touch again. Just, come when I try?” 

“Of course.” Pyrrha smiled. She really liked it when Ruby had been cuddly and high in the past, it would be nice if she could see that again, especially after how much pain Ruby was clearly in.

###### Yang

Yang carefully studied Mistral’s mission board, doing her best to ignore the variety of looks she was getting, from glares to curious glances to ogling. The provisional part of her provisional license meant that she wasn’t allowed to take on missions alone, or to take on missions involving a few especially dangerous Grimm, mostly whatever kinds required specially formed teams to take down. Normally, that wasn’t a big deal, since provisional licenses were pretty much only ever given to students, and thus they had teams or partners to hunt with, but of course she was thousands of miles away from her team.

Coming to Mistral had been dull. Too dull, really. Nothing happened on the airship, meaning that Yang was alone with her thoughts the entire time. Mostly thoughts of Ruby, and guilt, with a little bit of worry over everything Raven had told her sprinkled in for good measure. She needed to do something to burn off her restless energy before she got down to business and started looking into what had happened to the clan, as well as some money to be able to travel to the ruins, and for tonight’s lodging.

“Hey you.” A booming voice interrupted Yang’s reading. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Yang turned around casually, though her wings spread a little bit to make herself look bigger.

In front of her stood a large, lanky man, more than seven feet tall. His messy dark blue hair reached all the way down to his thighs, and his tattered black cloak reached farther. His face was eerie in some indescribable way that, combined with the strange angles of his face, seemed to suggest a countenance of hostility and indifference.

“You just got a provisional license, right? You need someone to hunt with!” The man’s appearance didn’t match his words at all as he suddenly grinned, and Yang was a bit unsettled by the whole thing.

“How would you even know that?” Yang leaned defensively against the board.

“I haven’t seen you around before, so you must be new. But, it’s not the end of the school year, meaning that you’re not a Haven graduate, or probably even a sophomore, since you’re here alone. Therefore, you must have something special going on, that’s gotten you a provisional license in the middle of a semester.” He bobbed his head in a small bow that still left him above Yang’s eye level. “Am I wrong?”

“No, you aren’t.” Yang narrowed her eyes. “What do you want?”

“To offer you a helping hand, of course. I’m sure you can tell that you won’t find many people here willing to do such a thing, either because of your inexperience or your race.”

“Why?”

“Because assisting those in need is part of a huntsman’s duty.” He grinned toothily. It wasn’t exactly creepy, so much as... self-contradictory. Like his face just didn’t suit his emotions. What a strange person.

Yang briefly glanced around the room, with its many mission boards and lingering hunters of not quite every description. No one else even looked at her, just like they hadn’t since she’d come in. From the way it looked, even Atlas was better about having Faunus hunters than Mistral. “Fine, what’s your name?”

“Harglove Craft.” Harglove put forward his hand, presenting his hunter’s license. Strangely, his date of birth and the description of his semblance were both marked classified. It only listed the name of his semblance, “Strange Eons.”

“What kind of semblance gets classified?” Yang squinted suspiciously at the ID. This entire circumstance seemed entirely too weird to be some sort of setup, at least.

“The kind of semblance that would be easy to counteract if you knew how it worked, mostly.” He shrugged, a gesture that was almost intimidating, given his height. “It’s not important, you’ll know it if I use it.”

“Yang Branwen, and yes, that Branwen.” Yang cut him off before he could ask.

“Actually, I don’t know what Branwen you’re referring to.” Harglove began studiously reading the mission board.

“Well, my last name is another reason for most of Mistral to hate my guts.” Yang furrowed her brow. She actually hadn’t really considered the possible consequences of her infamous last name while she was in Mistral. It would probably be less conspicuous in smaller towns, where people didn’t really care about the Branwen Clan’s banditry. Still, it wasn’t like there was anything she could do about it, it was just another reason for most everyone in Mistral to judge her, she’d deal with whatever trouble it gave her, and she planned to use it to open a few doors as well.

“Good thing I’m something of a bandit sympathizer, then.” Harglove chuckled, then gestured to a spot on the mission board. “Care to work together for something like this?”

“Yeah, I guess I’ll take what I can get.” Yang shrugged, and took a cursory glance at the mission. An extermination request for a small lancer infestation, the pay was pretty good, but it was too far away from a town to reach on foot. “Do you have transportation we can both use?”

“Indeed.” Harglove pressed his license against the screen, and Yang did the same a moment later, a cheery ping following almost immediately after to let them know of their successful acceptance of the mission. He looked at Yang expectantly, his sea green eyes almost dead looking. “Shall we?”

“Sooner I get out of this city the better, honestly.” Yang was still a little weirded out by this guy, but she was confident she’d be fine. Working with other hunters was an important skill to have anyway, and they’re all an eccentric bunch. Probably more trustworthy the more eccentric they are, actually. She followed in his wake, keeping an ear out for any approaching trouble, and an eye on him.

###### Raven

“What the fuck is this?” Raven glared at the Rose household dining room, but mostly just at Taiyang, the man currently standing next to the candlelit table, wearing a Beacon school uniform, a women’s uniform, of all things. 

“I want to apologize. Properly.” He had the impunity to hold out a chair for her.

“That explains nothing. Why, in all the multifarious hells and planes of existence, are you wearing that school uniform, and why is there a candlelit dinner in this room?” Raven gestured at the setup that bore a suspicious resemblance to mood lighting.

“I thought that humiliating myself a little might make you more receptive to what I have to say.” Tai grinned like an idiot. “It worked last time.”

“Last time you weren’t responsible for a major disaster that changed my entire fucking life. Last time we were just idiot teenagers.” Raven could have added a certain prepositional phrase to that sentence, but she didn’t.

“Look, I don’t care how you feel about me after this, but I want to resolve this, somehow. You’ve been grumbling bitterly at me for weeks, never actually talking to me, and I’m only going to deal with that for so long when we’re living in the same house.” Tai did look ridiculous, trying to give a serious speech in that plaid skirt. It almost loosened Raven’s attitude.

“Fine. Talk. But I’m not eating dinner with you, not like this.” Raven sat, not in the chair Tai was offering to pull out for her, but the one had been posed in when she first entered. It was then that she noticed a conspicuous third chair.

“I’m sorry, Raven. I never should have reacted the way I did when Yang was born, it was utterly idiotic of me. I ruined our relationship, and I don’t expect to be able to do anything about that.” Tai threaded his fingers together and rested his chin on his crossed hands. “But I don’t want to let that stop us from being able to get along with each other. I’d like for us to be able to be friends again.”

“You’ve...” Raven stopped speaking. She’d been about to complain about the consequences of what he’d done, but what were the consequences? That she raised her daughter, met Vernal, carved a path through this world that she was proud of, independent of Ozpin? If she hadn’t been kicked out, would she have even stayed for very long at all? No, she was in too deep to trust that she could stop working for Ozpin peacefully, and she was near the breaking point with him already. If she had had a choice, would she have even brought Yang with her? Probably not, she shouldn’t have raised Yang in the way she did, even though Yang had somehow turned out to be pretty well-adjusted. The past eighteen years, they were good. She was happy. She liked the way her life had turned out as a whole, both then and now.

“I forgive you.” Raven felt something within her unwind, and she laughed breathlessly. “I can’t believe I’m saying it, but I forgive you, you... complete idiot.” Hating Tai for what he had done would be a denial of all the good in her life that had come after it. There wasn’t any choice to be made here.

Tai blinked and sat up straight, his eyes wide as dinner plates as his jaw dropped to the floor. “What?”

“You heard me, I’m not saying it a third time.” Raven smirked. It was fun to watch Tai squirm in confusion.

“Dinner’s ready!” Summer suddenly burst into the room, wielding a smile and a large glass pan full of what smelled like some kind of fish.

“I’m not eating dinner like this.” Raven crossed her arms with a scowl. “And why are you barging in right now? I’m sure you know we’re having a discussion. Are you just interrupting for fun, or worse, were you listening in on us?”

“No!” Summer panicked and set down the pan, then waved her hands frantically in denial. “I just planned this because I thought you two would need something to break the tension! I promise I wasn’t listening.” 

“Oh really?” Raven kept up the act as Tai sputtered in confusion. “Then you won’t mind if I insist that all three of us eat dinner together tonight?”

“Nope.” Summer denied desperately, popping the p, only to narrow her eyes at Raven a moment later, her wings flitting erratically. “Wait, what?”

Raven laughed, breaking character. “Tell her.” She nodded to Tai, who grew a grin of his own as he realized that she had just been messing with Summer.

“We already made up.” Tai still looked like he hardly believed it had happened as he shook his head. “Just like that.”

“That’s fantastic!” Summer beamed at Raven, then jumped forward and hugged her, wrapping her wings around the both of them. “I’m so proud of you!”

The words were enough to shock Raven into a moment of utter silence as her brain shut down. Summer was soft, and smelled nice, and Raven couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “What could you possibly be proud of?”

“You!” Summer pulled back to look at Raven, a simple smile wrinkling her face and making two dimples form on her cheeks. Raven wanted to poke them. “For being able to do make up with Tai. We can all be a family again, all four of us, and Ruby and Yang too.”

“Maybe.” Raven couldn’t bring herself to contradict Summer, even if she couldn’t believe that Qrow would ever get his head out of his own ass enough to ditch Ozpin. She let Summer hug her tighter in response to her halfhearted reply.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure Yang’s going to be fine. She was raised by you after all, she can handle whatever comes her way.” Summer patted Raven’s back as she misinterpreted Raven’s doubt as being over Yang and her little journey. Raven didn’t have the heart to correct her.

“Let’s just eat dinner. Is that couscous?”


	29. The Paltry Thing That is the Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _slaps Raven's ass_ this girl can fit so much angst in her

_In the following text, {}1 indicates content redacted to those without security clearance. The number indicates the degree of security clearance required to access enclosed content._

Semblances are often categorized into a set of five imperfectly defined categories.

 **Enhancement-** Semblances that enhance the users basic physical capabilities or the motions of external objects through the application of force (often kinetic energy) are enhancement-type. They can allow people to run at inhuman speeds, punch with impossible force, drive their owners onward to other feats of prowess beyond any ordinary person, as well as sometimes constituting means of ranged attack.

 **Alteration-** Semblances that somehow alter the metaphysical properties of the universe itself in relation to what is usually a limited quantity of mass. This may include such effects as the ability to change an object’s temperature, vacuum permittivity, the manipulation of parallel universes to create multiple copies of oneself, or even control over the value of the universal gravitational constant.

 **Manipulation-** Semblances that allow the user to alter to locations, arrangements, or properties of matter itself. These alterations often allow the user to do things such as alter density (alter mass without changing the volume or harming the structural integrity of the object, such as a human), create complex constructs from the elementary particles present in the atmosphere, or alter the trajectories and wavelengths of photons to create illusions.

 **Transmutation-** Transmutations semblances allow the user to change their aura to mimic the properties of other objects. Rather than creating physical objects like manipulation semblances, any seemingly solid object created by a transmutation semblance is made out of pure aura, though curiously, it is impossible to scientifically identify the difference until the user allows the construct to dissipate. Transmutation auras are not limited to mimicking the properties of solid matter, however, they can often appear in the form of liquids, gases, plasmas, or even electricity and other effects that stem from atomic and subatomic particles, such as magnetic poles. Some transmutation semblances alter both the user’s aura and their physical form.

 **Specialist-** Specialist semblances are semblances that do not fit into one of the other four categories. They are sometimes simply effects that we do not have the means to study and understand on a scientific basis, or they may operate in a way that combines core principles from other categories to create unforeseen effects. {Additionally, every semblance that manipulates the aura or the soul itself is considered to be specialist.}4 The majority of specialist semblances fall into the second category.

While often seemingly impossible in nature, when we assume that the soul produces energy and that the aura is a physical manifestation of this energy, all semblances are believed to follow the laws of conservation of mass and energy, {save those belonging to demihumans, who’s existence invariably disregards thermodynamics and general relativity regardless,}2 even if we do not yet have the knowledge to fully understand them.

Furthermore, for reasons not yet understood, semblances that are more specific in the requirements for their activation often display greater potential than those that are the most general. Nearly any semblance that creates physical constructs require a catalyst of some kind which appears to significantly improve the efficiency with which aura is converted into pure energy used to reassemble matter. Enhancement semblances that require certain conditions to activate provide a far more significant boost than those which can be used at will. These effects are more difficult to generalize for other types, but are consistent in all semblances.

Having unlocked your semblance, understanding the physical principles behind its function can be immensely beneficial, allowing you to develop new ways of using it, often only limited by the imagination and strength of the user. Once you understand what your aura does on a physical or metaphysical level, it is often possible to unlock further potential, lying just beyond the surface. Furthermore, if you should ever develop an aura capable of altering a nuclear cross-section or similar universal constant, or that can do something like create a wormhole or black hole, you may be able to get a lifelong job working in a research facility, helping physicists unlock the mysteries of the universe.

- **Vermillion Cotta, excerpt from _An Introduction To Classification And Understanding Of Aura_**

###### Yang

Yang had been suspicious of being provided oh so handily with a means of getting out of Mistral. But, with the road flying by beneath her, and the wind running over her slightly spread wings, she found that she didn’t really care. Harglove’s motorcycle roared beneath her as it tore down the dirt road, a yellow and black beauty that had immediately made Yang’s eyes light up in excitement when she saw it.

Mistral had receded well out of sight before the sun began to creep lower in the sky, and the motorcycle started to slow down, pulling to the side of the road without explanation. Yang carefully scanned her surroundings, checking for a reason to stop, but she couldn’t see anything.

“What’s up?” She shouted at Harglove once she thought she could be heard.

“We aren’t going to reach the nest before nightfall. Thought you might be interested in learning how to ride in the time we have before the end of the twilight hour.” Harglove brought the motorcycle to a stop and punched the kickstand. He got off, and looked at Yang expectantly.

Flabbergasted, Yang looked at the motorcycle, then up at Harglove, then back at the motorcycle. This was downright suspiciously magnanimous. People don’t do this kind of thing. “What’s your angle here?”

“I enjoy meddling in the course of events.” Harglove smiled that strange smile of his. “Though mostly I just watch.”

“That explains absolutely nothing.”

“If I explained myself, what is yet to pass may change. I assure you, that is something that neither of us want.”

“You say that as if you know the future.”

“I don’t, though I may have a few insights, brought on in the wisdom of my old age.” Hargrave chuckled. “But what harm could possibly come from learning a new skill. What do you have to lose?”

“Fine. I’ll learn from you.” Yang nodded, her mind set on this new task. She did like the idea of knowing how to ride a motorcycle.

“Excellent.”

###### Raven

Raven groaned and shifted in bed, her head and nipples throbbing with a dull ache, both only partially alcohol related. Instinctively, she reached to her side in search of the glass of water that Vernal usually left by her bedside after their more intense nights. Instead she found her hand on top of what was most likely a man’s chest.

“Wha?” That didn’t make sense, she was bi, but Vernal was a lesbian, and as her senses arranged themselves a little bit more she realized that there was definitely a woman sleeping on her other side.

“Good morning Rae-Rae.” Summer, and only Summer would dare call her that, draped a wing over Raven affectionately, her voice sleepy.

“No.” Raven jumped, clumsily scrambling to get away from the people next to her, heedless of her nudity as she eyed them fearfully, feeling like a cornered animal. “No, no, no, no.” Memories of the previous night began to reassert themselves, of a delicious dinner, followed by a generous number of drinks. Of Raven thinking out loud about how Tai actually looked better in a skirt than in pants, since it made it easier to “peg that twink’s ass.” Of Summer saying that she loved her, and Raven finally understanding what she meant.

For one night, she had let herself feel like she was somewhere she belonged again. It was worse than that, though. For one night, she had forgotten Vernal was even gone, and then she had woken up thinking everything was okay for just the briefest of moments, only for her heart to break again, like a hypocrite, one who didn’t deserve anyone or anything good in their life.

Summer’s face fell quickly as she realized what was happening. “Oh no, I’m so sorry. Please-”

Finally, Raven’s eyes settled on a target, the adrenaline pumping through her body tightening her focus to a razor’s edge. With a leap, she kicked out the window of the second story master bedroom and transformed into a bird.

“Wait! Please! I’m so sorry.” A heavy thump came from somewhere just behind Raven. The glance she spared to check her surroundings gave her a glimpse of Summer, laying naked on the ground amongst a pile of broken glass and wood with a hand outstretched toward the sky. “Please come back!”

Raven didn’t look back again as she flew into the woods.

###### Daisy

Daisy was sitting innocently in the living room of the Rose household, happy to enjoy a rare opportunity to just quietly read a book without any background noise, since Raven, Summer, and Tai had all slept in after a night of very lengthy and very noisy sex. Sex that she had heard far more of than she needed to. 

All of that was interrupted, of course, when Summer fell onto the porch naked in a shower of broken glass not three feet in front of Daisy on the other side of the sliding glass door that led to the back yard, desperately crying out Raven’s name. 

After quickly marking her place in the book, Daisy got up and grabbed the blanket that had been thrown over the couch as she made her way outside, trying to avoid ogling the beautiful, muscular, naked woman in front of her. 

“I ruined everything. Again.” Summer sniffed as she lay in the glass. Her aura wasn’t even up, and she was already bleeding from various cuts.

“It’s not your fault.” Daisy wasn’t really sure whether it was or not, but that wasn’t as important as calming Summer. She draped the blanket over her shoulders. “You should activate your aura and come back inside.”

“She’s gone again!” Summer stood and screamed into the woods, though at least she had the presence of mind to wrap the cloak around her shoulders, though she still ignored the glass. “I made her leave again!” Tears were streaming down her eyes.

“Hey, no. She’s the one who ran away.” Daisy grabbed Summer by the shoulders and spun her around into a hug. “She’s going to come back. She has to, because I’m here, remember? I won’t let her not talk to you when she does, even if she tries to leave right away, okay? It’s going to be fine.” With Raven, that was probably a lie, but hey, she’d seen Raven be different in all kinds of ways lately, seemingly because of Summer’s presence. “Plus, hey, she’s probably naked and unarmed, so she can’t do very much as a human unless she comes back for some clothes.” Where was Tai anyway?

As if to answer her unspoken question, there was a loud, drawn out snore, all the way from the bedroom above.

###### Yang

“Ready?” Harglove asked as he mounted his motorcycle, not confident enough in Yang’s driving ability to let her take both of them, even though she was learning pretty quickly. It made sense, she already had a good sense of balance from fighting.

“Yeah, yeah. Hold on old man, I just gotta finish putting the girls back together.” Yang rolled her eyes as she tossed her backpack over her shoulder and retracted Ember Celica. Just as she was about to climb onto the motorcycle behind her traveling companion, there was a weight on her shoulder.

“Caw!” A raven sat on her shoulder, and intrusively rubbed it’s head against Yang’s cheek.

Yang narrowed her eyes in disbelief. “Mom?” She muttered quietly, and got a squawk in response. “What are you doing here?”

Raven pecked her on the cheek.

“Ow! What do you want from me?” Yang rubbed said cheek saltily.

Raven rubbed her beak against Yang’s cheek again.

Experimentally, Yang reached out a single finger and ran it from along the top of Raven’s head to her tail, in line with the grain of her feathers. She really didn’t know how to pet a bird, despite partially being one. It seemed to mollify the corvid.

“Who’s this?” Harglove chuckled and curiously reached out a finger of his own, only for it to get viciously bitten.

“This is Raven, my uhhh... pet raven?” Yang had absolutely no idea what she could say to both avoid irritating her mom and keep the fact that her mom could turn into a bird a secret. “She doesn’t like strangers. And she comes and goes sometimes, because she’s a free spirit like me.” She grinned and desperately hoped that Harglove wouldn’t try asking any questions.

“Well, she’s welcome to come with us as long as she can avoid falling off.” A distantly amused look crossed his face before he turned around and revved the motorcycle’s engine, signaling for Yang to hurry up and get on already.

Raven remained steadfastly perched on her shoulder.

###### Ruby

Ruby sighed happily as she pulled a tray of cookies from the oven. They were her mom’s recipe, except for the weed, which didn’t really do anything to change the taste. In other words, they were delicious. She sent out a group text as she put them on the counter to cool, letting everyone who’s help she was enlisting know that it was almost time. She had considered offering them a cookie each, but figured it would be better to save the offer for a later time when she didn’t need to worry so much about her own boundaries.

It wasn’t long before one dozen special cookies were sitting in a green tupperware, just waiting to be monched. Ruby ended up doing the monching before anyone else was even at the dorm, mostly just because she really craved cookies now that they were in front of her. Only one though. Just as she finished eating it, she realized that she’d forgotten to prepare regular cookies in advance for when she inevitably got munchy. Oh well, that probably wouldn’t come back to bite her in any way whatsoever.

Nora was the first person to arrive, and she struck up some sign language practice while they waited for the cookie to kick in.

 _Why do you know sign language, anyway?_ Ruby had wondered since she had first been signed to by Nora, but only now had a chance to ask.

 _That’s a secret, actually._ Nora motioned as if she was zipping her lips shut, then throwing away a key. _What about you? Why did you decide you want to learn?_

 _It just feels better to not talk sometimes. I’m not really nonverbal, but I guess sometimes I wish I could be without making my life a lot harder._ Ruby smiled.

“Mmm.” Nora hummed and began to sign something else, only to be interrupted by the door opening to let Weiss and Pyrrha in.

“Hello again.” Pyrrha waved minutely as she came in, beaming slightly.

“This is going to be a very interesting experience, if it goes well.” Weiss mused as xe sat in cyr bed and grabbed xyr plushie, a smirk twitching at the corners of xyr lips.

“Hopefully.” Ruby forced a smile as she started to worry about whether she would ever be able to get any better with touching people again.

“Hey,” Weiss snapped xyr fingers with a scowl, drawing back Ruby’s attention. “I have faith in you being able to accomplish whatever it is that you want to accomplish here, regardless of our expectations. Just give the word and I will assist.”

“Awww.” Ruby smiled at her partner, heartened. “You’re nice Weiss way more often lately, even if you try to pretend you aren’t. It’s great.”

“Whatever.” Weiss idly studied xyr fingernails. 

Somehow, Blake had already come into the room, in that almost unnaturally stealthy way she had of appearing wherever she was needed, almost as if she were perpetually blending into the shadows themselves. It seemed to be happening more and more often lately. “She’s right, you dork.” She sidled next to Weiss and kissed xyr on the cheek, immediately reddening xyr face.

“You’re the dork,” Weiss muttered, “you’re just better at stealth.”

Ruby giggled. She liked watching moments like that. It was cute, even if she wished she could be a part of it more directly. It was a dumb wish though, she was sure it was never going to happen. 

“Cool, we’re all here!” Nora looked expectantly at Ruby, a giant grin on her face.

“I already ate a cookie, but I’m still sober.” Ruby clarified. “Need a few minutes to be ready to try anything.”

“Did you remember to clean the dust residue from your hammer, Nora?” Pyrrha valiantly started a conversation in the face of Ruby’s tendency to kill it, and Ruby winked appreciatively at her. For some reason, she blushed in response.

“Pfft. Of course I did, I’d lose my spot as a TA in Mulberry's advanced artillery class if I forgot something like that.” Nora lightly punched Pyrrha on the arm.

Ruby let the chatter fade to the background of her thoughts. She was happy to just listen most anytime, but maybe paying less attention to them would help her avoid concentrating on the fact that the four people on this continent that she had a crush on were all in this room and she was about to get high and have them help her get somewhat used to physical contact again, something that definitely wasn’t riddled with opportunities for things to go horribly wrong, especially when two of said crushes were already dating each other and none of them had probably ever so much as heard the word polyamory before.

Someone snapped their fingers, and Ruby looked up at the sound. It was Nora.

_You look stressed, you should probably stim a bit._

Nonplussed, Ruby blinked. Had she mentioned being autistic to JNPR? Probably not? It was a good suggestion, but how would Nora know? _How did you know?_

 _Same way I can tell you’re trans._ Nora raised a curious eyebrow. _Just get that feeling._

 _Wait, are you saying that you’re both too?_ Ruby’s jaw dropped incedulously.

 _Yeah. Sorry, I would have said something, but I thought you could just tell too._ Nora shrugged.

Shaking her head in wonderment, Ruby pulled out her headphones and started playing V-The New Mythology Suite, singing and humming along under her breath. After a moment, she realized something. _I can listen to music and sign at the same time, I'm a genius!_

 _Nice._ Nora grinned.

“Mmm.” Ruby nodded and leaned back, just letting herself stop for a moment, and listen to music.

At some point she remembered that she was doing something, and spaced back in to realize she was at least ten minutes further into the album than she had been a second ago. The cookies must have hit at some point, or maybe not. It was easy to space out sometimes either way. Either way, she took off her headphones.

Gay thoughts flooded Ruby’s mind without restraint as she looked at the people around her. It might be a little bit hard to do this in a restrained fashion, if she wasn’t pretty sure that she’d need to run away if someone gave her a hug. 

“Someone’s back in the land of the living.” Blake teased, her expression neutral.

Ruby tilted her head curiously, considering who she would probably be most comfortable starting with. Blake was the calmest of them, so she started there. “Blake, would you give me your hand?”

Blake’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. She spoke from the side of her mouth. “Hey Weiss, you know that thing we were talking about earlier that I said I wasn’t sure about?”

“Yes.” Weiss smiled knowingly at Blake.

“I’m pretty sure now.”

“Mood.”

Without another word, Blake extended her hand to Ruby. She seemed tense though.

“Weiss, can you make her relax a little?” Ruby was already a bit nervous about this, despite the cookie. Blake being nervous would probably make things harder.

“Of course.” Weiss quickly leaned over and kissed Blake on the cheek, making her immediately blush and smile as her posture relaxed.

Hesitantly, Ruby reached forward and sandwiched Blake’s pointer finger between the pointer finger and thumb of her biological hand. No panic yet, and she could feel that the skin of Blake’s finger was soft. Maybe vampire hands don’t get callouses? With a twist of her hand, she indicated for Blake to move her hand to face her palm up. Carefully, Ruby poked Blake’s palm, and let herself enjoy the feeling of body heat soaking into the tip of her finger. That much was alright.

“I’m going to try holding your hand.” Ruby waited for Blake to nod before slipping her hand into Blake’s and squeezing it, even though she felt like she was touching an electrical wire that may or may not be live. She waited, breath held, but it was okay, the touch was comforting. 

Blake squeezed gently back, and Ruby pulled her hand away as if she’d been burned.

“Nope!” Ruby recoiled and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to suppress the sudden nausea that built up in her gut. “Nononononono.” She buried her face against a bed and wrapped her wings around herself, not wanting to be seen. She felt so gross. 

“Sorry.” Blake apologized, but the damage was done.

Ruby tried to let her mind blank. It was both easier and harder than normal to do her best to let go of her thoughts and focus on tactile sensations instead. The way her flannel rubbed against her arms, the feel of the bed she was touching. They blotted out the near remembrance of what had happened, and she took a deep breath, sitting up.

“Okay, okay.” Ruby looked around her again and tried to analyze what had happened as dispassionately as possible. “So that _was_ okay, until Blake reciprocated. Therefore, maybe I can handle touching as long as I’m not touched back.” It seemed like a good start.

“Are you sure?” Pyrrha frowned. “You should stop if you want to.”

“No.” Ruby squared her shoulders. “I want to figure out what’s up with myself, and thinking about it is horrible, so I’m going to do it by doing. And I want to be able to hug all of you again. So stand up, because I’m going to hug you, just don’t let your hands touch me or hug back while I do.”

“That sounds really reckless.” Pyrrha hesitated.

“Yes, it is!” Ruby pointed dramatically into the air, trying to project confidence and authority.

“Well, okay. If you’re sure.” Pyrrha stood up and let her arms hand at her side.

Ruby blinked, nonplussed. That worked? Was it really that easy to be authoritative? She wasn’t really inclined to do things like that in social situations, but it seemed useful in a fight. She mentally filed the mask away for later use. “Yes, I am.” 

With a deep breath, Ruby stepped in front of Pyrrha and slowly wrapped her arms around Pyrrha’s torso. She sped up a little when she realized that she was exactly at cleavage height compared to the massively muscular tournament champion, and added her wings for good measure so that no one would see her blushing. It only took a few seconds for her to start enjoying the hug as it brought to mind everything she liked about Pyrrha.

For the first time in a while, Ruby felt comfy, even without Pyrrha returning the hug. She stepped back with a broad smile and a little bit more hope than she had had when she’d started the exercise. “Thanks.”

“I’m happy to help.” Pyrrha’s face practically matched the color of her hair.

“Everyone else gets hugs too!” Ruby grinned in anticipation.

###### Blake

Lately, though she made a point of not showing it off, Blake had been _productive._ She felt like she had nothing but energy to burn all day, while needing no sleep, probably because of the regular and eager Schnee family blood bank, though it was probably a bit mean to think of Weiss that way. Weiss had also suggested she think of xyr that way, which had turned out to be quite a bit of fun the last time she’d fed. She’d even started writing the Ninjas of Love fanfiction she’d been idly musing over for months, and was making a lot of progress very quickly.

Emotionally, she felt that she was doing almost suspiciously well in working through things with Weiss, discussing and learning about polyamory, and tentatively trying to work with some of her trauma, mostly with Professor Peach’s help. It left her raw sometimes, but she had so much time in the day she usually managed to get over it without anyone else on the team noticing. Something that Peach actually said was a bad habit, and that she should really keep talking to them about what she was going through, at least Weiss, but she literally felt ready to touch the sky ninety percent of the time, so it was fine.

She felt so good, both physically and mentally, that she had felt the need to ask Professor Peach if there was such a thing as getting too much blood as a vampire, and whether she was about to burn out on an addition or something. Unfortunately, she hadn’t gotten much of an answer.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help you with that. Vampires are rare, vampires like you who willingly work with human society even more so. We simply don’t have that kind of information.”

It was a little bit worrying, but she was in a safe environment, so it should be fine, however it turned out. It wasn’t like she craved more blood beyond even what Weiss was giving her. Still, it might be good if she could burn off some of her energy using her vampirically enhanced semblance, or maybe just vampire powers? Either way, there were definitely things about them that she didn’t understand yet, but she avoided using them with anyone but her teammates, not sure how she would explain such a radical and powerful change in her semblance to someone.

“So, you’re sure that you have feelings for Ruby now, are you?” Weiss smoothly interrupted Blake’s thoughts. 

“Right. That’s what I was saying.” Blake blushed and lowered her head, not wanting to let Weiss see her face. Seeing Ruby ask for her hand had tickled the more classically romantic parts of her interests, and it was embarrassing, but the first thing she had thought of was accepting her hand in marriage, even though she didn’t even care for the custom. It was just too ingrained into the typically human books she read to ignore.

“I fear that it may be difficult for me to restrain myself on this upcoming shopping trip I’ve planned with her.” Weiss sighed. “But it is a comfort to know that our feelings are in alignment.”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine, I trust you.” Blake smiled, and squeezed Weiss’ hand. “I’m just sorry that I’m holding you back like this.”

“What?” Weiss’ expression immediately hardened into the one xe used to scold people. “No, that’s completely wrong. Fool.” Xe booped Blake’s nose. “Just because all of this was my idea to begin with doesn’t mean I’m fully prepared for it either. It’s possible that I may be slightly closer than you are, but I strongly doubt that I could handle dating multiple people right now either.”

“Really? You seem really well put together lately.” Blake couldn’t think of a single thing that had gone wrong between them lately, or any serious problem in their lives.

“So do you.” Weiss smiled ruefully. “It’s possible that we both have tendencies to pretend to be more okay than we really are, though in regard to our relationship I continue to be incredibly and genuinely happy.” 

“Yeah... that’s probably true.” Blake internally winced. “Ruby’s way better about that than we are.”

“She is.” Weiss casually sat next to Blake and wrapped an arm around her. “It would be a lie to say that I don’t want to tell her and invite her to join us immediately, but of course it would be a foolish decision.”

“Mmm. Whatever trauma she’s got is getting to her bad. I can’t help but wonder whether whatever happened wasn’t only Yang’s fault, but rather inflicted by her.” Blake sighed and let Weiss comfort her. “I can’t imagine Yang would do something trauma-inducing on purpose, but I don’t know if I even want to know what happened at this point.”

“Agreed. Accidentally running someone over with a motorcycle seems to be much more Yang’s speed, as far as inflicting trauma is concerned.” Weiss quipped, and Blake managed to genuinely chuckle.

“And then I’m sure she’d insist on carrying the poor soul to the hospital herself, even if she had a broken leg or something.” Blake tried to laugh, but her thoughts were already taking a darker turn. “We really can’t say though. There are plenty of things I’ve done that I hope you never find out about. I like to think that they don’t define me.”

“You said that you hadn’t done anything especially egregious, before. Right?” Weiss drew back, suddenly nervous. “That’s right, isn’t it?”

“I said that I did what I had to for survival.” Blake looked away. “And that I never did anything for the purpose of hurting people.”

“I see.” Weiss flipped xyr braid back behind xyr head, a nervous tick. “That would be my fault for failing to see the deeper meaning behind your words then. How foolish of me. I should have recognized your language, given the negotiations and legal diction I have studied.” Something about Blake’s words being compared to the kind of cunningly constructed language that would be used in a negotiation hurt, even though it was probably true.

“It wasn’t my intention to conceal the truth like that, it was genuinely how I see it. Just, sort of abridged because I didn’t want to scare you off or make you hate me again.” Blake bowed her head. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry.” Weiss patted Blake on the back, somewhat awkwardly. “This does... unsettle me. Somewhat. But I am beyond judging you by your past. And if you should ever wish to talk about it, either for the sake of support, or because you feel that I should know, you are free to do so. Furthermore, I give you my word that I will not be scared off by so paltry a thing as your past.”

“That’s a huge relief.” Blake sighed, and let herself lean against Weiss again, idly twirling her hair around her finger. She knew how much Weiss valued xyr word. It was probably the most reassuring thing that xe could have said. “But maybe don’t call my past paltry? It actually sort of sounds like an insult if you think about it.” She chucked to let xyr know that she didn’t actually care.

“A correction then, I will not be scared off by something as paltry as the consequences of the influence and actions of that cowardly, weak, insecure little bitch-boy, Adam Taurus.”

Blake burst out into laughter. “Now that’s an insult I can get behind. In fact...” she pulled Weiss' face to her own and locked their lips together in a deep kiss. 

It was a while before they decided to stop kissing.


	30. Ashley and Boomstick

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> remember how Yang has rockets and Blake can send out a shockwave from her sword? Neither do the writers, but they were things that happened in v1-3 and I'm including them, hopefully consistently through this entire story.
> 
> Just a warning about this chapter. This is the first time the whole graphic depictions of violence archive warning is really coming into play

###### Weiss

“How’s this?” Ruby cracked open the changing room door, wearing black skirt, tights, corset, and red hooded cloak that Weiss had picked out for her.

Weiss meant to nod and politely reassure Ruby that xyr fashion skills, while not as immaculately honed as Coco’s, were still just as perfectly perfect as xyr other social skills, and that she therefore looked excellent in her chosen clothes. Instead, xe made a small strangled sound as xyr eyes practically bulged out of xyr head.

Thighs. Weiss had not dressed Ruby up for the purpose of xyr own gratification, xe would have sworn upon xyr honor that the tights xe had picked out would reach further up Ruby’s legs than they did, as they were slightly too long on xyr. In reality, a non-insignificant amount of thigh was visible between the top of the tights and the bottom of Ruby’s skirt. Xe had a sudden and viscous desire to lick the supple skin.

“It’s that bad?” Ruby winced, and Weiss was broken from xyr stupor before xyr filthy mind could wander any further into inappropriate thoughts.

“On the contrary, it is so good that I was rendered temporarily speechless.” Weiss smoothly recovered xyr composure.

“Oh.” Ruby nodded contemplatively as she looked into the mirror. “I guess so. It does feel pretty good to wear too. This thing makes my boobs look bigger and at the same time the compression is sort of comforting.” She hefted her breasts to study them more closely, making Weiss’ newfound composure shatter into a million pieces that were immediately blown away in the wind’s song, never to be seen again.

“Weiss?” Ruby took the path of not distracting Weiss as much and waved her hand in front of xyr face instead. “Are you still there?”

“Yes! I must powder my nose!” Weiss turned around and ran away into the clothing store bathroom, hid in a stall, pulled out xyr scroll, and called Blake.

“So on a scale of one to salmon, how cute is Ruby right now?” Blake drawled from the other end of the audio only call.

“Blake, I need help. I can’t do this while maintaining a dispassionate front, or without being unethical due to my corrupted decision-making process, I’m too gay.”

“No such thing as too gay, only too gay to function.” 

“You know what I mean!”

“Do I though?” Blake laughed sadistically. “Okay, no, I’m done. Seriously though, have you tried say, thinking about your father instead? To distract yourself from Ruby’s hotness.”

“That would probably work, but I must wonder, at what cost?”

“Too great a cost, I suppose.” Blake hummed thoughtfully. “You could just tell her some of the truth.”

“ _Some_ of the truth?”

“That you’re struggling with your attraction to her right now even though you have no intention of actually acting on it, thus resolving the ethical quandary by allowing Ruby to give consent to the fact that you appreciate her appearance a little more than you should be without revealing our romantic feelings for her.” 

“That is the precise amount of the truth that I should tell.” Weiss nodded. “I’d better go, I suspect that my stay in this bathroom may be suspicious in its length.”

“You’re welcome, no need to thank me really, I'm just your friendly neighborhood cryptid girlfriend.”

“Thank you, Blake. I love you. Talk to you later.” 

“Love you too.” Blake ended the call in the moment before Weiss could, an audible smirk in her voice.

Weiss rolled xyr eyes as xe pocketed xyr scroll. Washing up only took a moment, and when xe returned, Ruby had only just managed to figure out how to take off the corset and was stepping outside the changing room.

“Okay, so I’m thinking we’re definitely getting all this stuff, right?” Ruby held up the small pile of clothes in her hands.

“Right. However, before we continue, there is something I must tell you.” Weiss cleared xyr throat. “I am currently struggling with physical attraction to you that I do not intend to act upon, and as a result I fear that my judgement and motivations in selecting clothing are somewhat distorted.”

“That’s okay.” Ruby smiled and her wings fluttered, though she tried to hide it. “I don’t really mind, and I trust you anyway.”

“I...” Weiss frowned. “You don’t mind?”

“No, of course not. Besides, it’s nice to be complimented on the way I look by someone who’s not related to me or currently dating me.” Ruby twirled a strand of hair around her finger absent-mindedly, her smile no longer hidden. Something about it made Weiss’ heart light up.

“Well then, let’s look at some more of these combat skirts.” Weiss nodded curtly, satisfied that xe could harmlessly enjoy the rest of the shopping trip.

Together, they picked out a few more outfits for Ruby, and along the way Weiss snagged a little something special for Blake, careful not to let Ruby see. They eventually made their way to the register.

“Your total for today is one hundred fifty lien.” The cashier droned apathetically.

Weiss smoothly swiped xyr credit card and waited for it to process. After a moment, a notification informed xyr that the card was declined, so xe tried again.

Declined again. A sneaking suspicion began to creep over Weiss as xe changed to a personal debit card, one connected to an account xyr father had no control over. This one was successful.

“Is everything okay?” Ruby asked as she picked up her bags and left the store with Weiss.

“Of course.” Weiss shifted xyr two bags to one hand and pulled out xyr scroll, opening xyr banks app.

As suspected, every credit card in xyr father’s name, and every shared account into which xyr allowance was ordinarily deposited was deactivated or empty.

###### Yang

“We’re near.” Harglove stoically commented as he slowed the motorcycle and pulled to the side of the room.

Yang looked at her mom, who had been clinging tightly to her shoulder for the past three hours. Concerningly touchy, by Raven’s standards. “You should probably go somewhere else for a while, unless you want to help. It’s lancers, they’ll be able to chase you if they decide to.” Grimm usually ignore animals, but whether they can tell that Raven is actually a human disguised as a bird is something she’d rather not find out.

Raven squawked in a way that seemed almost mournful, then flew off somewhere, though not through a portal. 

“Business time.” Harglove drew his weapon, a long green chain whip that flowed like a third limb as he expertly wrapped it around his chest and assumed a vigilant stance, already on the lookout for Grimm.

Yang just nodded and shrugged off her backpack, then pulled out a tarp to hide it and the motorcycle beneath. “I’ll navigate.” She checked her scroll just in case GPS would work, no signal. That was fine, she’d been learning to navigate uncharted wilds for most of her life, and they had a map for this.

“Agreed.” Harglove nodded tersely and started walking in the direction Yang indicated.

The woods were quiet in a way Yang hadn’t had the pleasure of enjoying since she’d reached Vale with Blake in tow. It would have been almost meditative to casually make her way to her destination, if not for the company and the fact that she was constantly on watch for Grimm. At least having gauntlets as a weapon meant that she could easily drop the map and fight at a moment’s notice.

Mounting anticipation could only last for so long before it turned to boredom however, and when they reached the area that they should have found the lancer swarm in, according to usual migration patterns and their expected destination, they were nowhere to be seen. Ugh, she hated tracking.

It took four hours to finally find the lancer’s trail, one leading far further north than it should have been. It didn’t help that lancers flew, and thus left very little evidence of their passage.

“What a pain.” Yang groaned as she visually scoured the ground and trees around her for further signs that they were headed in the right direction. She knew that most hunter work was tracking, and could accept that, but that didn’t make it any less boring.

The trek north was faster and shorter than the search for a trail, and they managed to draw near enough to the swarm that there were no longer any small mammals in the area by late afternoon. Yang checked that her gauntlets were fully loaded and her spare ammo properly arranged on her utility belt one last time before they began a swift and silent approach to the faint buzzing that could already be heard in the distance.

Not much closer, and the buzzing started to get closer without them having to actively move toward it, so they started looking for a clearing, then prepared to stand their ground against an aerial assault.

A threshold was passed, and the sounds of flight got louder than Yang had expected it to be. “I’ve never fought lancers before, but this sounds like more than just eighteen.” She frowned, growing nervous. They should have reached them by now.

“It appears that the location of the swarm is not the only mistake made by whomever was responsible for posting this job.” Harglove nodded grimly, his whip held at the ready. “From the sound, it could easily be three dozen.”

“Shit.” Yang gritted her teeth. It was too late to turn back now. They couldn’t outrun lancers on foot. “Well, good luck.”

“To you as well.” The first lancer came into sight just as Hargrove finished speaking, and Yang quickly fired twin rockets at it, bringing it down before it could attack them.

In the next second, two more lancers took its place, then four, then more than Yang could count, the sound of their wings coalescing into an angry cacophony as they flew towards her. She fired more rockets in the moments before they started attacking back. She rolled to the side at the last second to avoid a barrage of wicked stingers. In the moment before they could retract back to their owners Harglove’s whip sliced through their tethers, disarming about seven long ranged attacks.

When a second, smaller barrage came her way Yang stood her ground. She deflected all but one, then grabbed the steel-like cord attached to the final stinger and held tight with one hand as it began reeling back to its owner’s thorax, her other hand knocking away additional stingers. The lancer in question began to beat it’s insectoid wings furiously, but it managed to remain airborne despite the sudden increase in weight.

She pulled herself up in the moment before the stinger clicked back into place with an almost metallic snap, wrapping her arms around the thorax as she quickly moved closer to the center of her new ride’s body, her wings pulled in tight against her body lest it try to throw her by catching them in the wind. In the time that she was busy climbing a few stingers glanced off of her wings, deflected by aura.

Once she had reached the narrow part of its body where two sections met up, Yang looked around her carefully and marked a potential next target, just a little bit to her left and below her current position. Two more rockets took down a lancer that got too close before it could charge her with it’s wicked claws outstretched. With one quick glance to confirm location and trajectory, she stuck Ember Celica into the space between her ride’s torso and head armor plates, and fired a normal shell.

In the brief fall between lancers, Yang caught a glimpse of Harglove not far away from her. He was swinging quickly from lancer to lancer on two whips, one held in each hand. Anything that got too close to him and wasn’t keeping him in the air ended up with a whip wrapped around its neck and was subsequently beheaded.

They kept this pattern stable for a short time, quickly cutting down the size of the swarm around them by hopping from one airborne target to the next. At one point Yang missed her target, only for Harglove to toss her a chain whip and swing her onto the back of a new lancer.

As the lancers began to thin, a smile creeped across Yang’s face. They were taking these things down with ease, though the last few would probably be a little bit trickier as they grew more dispersed. It got the adrenaline pumping through her veins like crazy, and even though she had worried about the numbers at first, she still had about half her aura left, while about three quarters of the swarm was gone. The simple rhythms of combat were a welcome relief from the thoughts she’d been living with lately.

Then another shape appeared on the horizon, a large one. It drew closer before she and Harglove could finish off the last few lancers, and they agreed that they needed to deal with it first. They made their way to it in tandem, Harglove’s whip quickly lashing out and deflecting the queen’s projectiles, along with most of the stingers of the remaining lancers while Yang took the occasional potshot at the queen with her nearly exhausted supply of rockets, dust-formed icicles, or hardlight daggers. 

The queen was large, hard to get a grip on, and worse, smart enough to do barrel rolls and try to throw Yang off the moment she latched onto it. She growled and flapped her wings, digging her fingers into the subtle cracks in the queen’s armor, then channeling earth dust through her aura to fill in those cracks and turn them into jutting stone handholds. Once she was confident she could hold onto the bucking queen with just one hand, she found another crack, and worked some ice into it, letting the ice then expand into the inside of the Grimm and crack the armor from underneath. She briefly wondered where Hargrave had gone. Maybe he wasn’t confident in his ability to keep hold of the queen, given his greater size than her.

A few swift punches to the deformed armor plating was enough to create a slightly larger than fist sized hole in the white material, and Yang finished the job by impaling a long icicle through the hole. Then as the queen shuddered and it’s flying slowed, she got up, ran up it’s body, and sliced off its wings with twin hardlight daggers as she launched herself off of it’s head.

Luckily, one of the few remaining lancers was right in her path as she jumped, and a concussive shot from Ember Calica along with a flap of her wings allowed her to adjust her trajectory and attach herself to a new victim. She no longer saw Harglove swinging amongst the lancers. It made sense though, there weren’t enough left to keep up that tactic reliably.

After another two lancers, Yang ran out of places to jump, so she settled for landing and dealing with whatever remained from the ground. All it took to land was a few shotgun blasts and a well-executed roll, just like Beacon initiation. Landing strategies really were invaluable.

The last three all tried to charge Yang, and she met them head-on with two uppercuts into their ugly insectoid faces while narrowly sidestepping the third. The last one tried to fire its stinger, but Yang just caught it, then reeled the thing in herself and swung it back and forth, ramming it against trees and the ground until it dissolved like it’s brethren.

A sudden wave of fatigue kicked in as Yang leaned against a tree. That was hard work, and she had been pretty sure she was going to fall a few times, a harrowing thought even if her landing strategy was well practiced. After a short break to catch her breath and let her aura ease most of the fatigue from her muscles, she got up in search of Harglove.

“Harglove!” She called out. No answer. They’d gotten separated a bit. She pulled out her scroll and checked it for his scroll’s signal. He was just a few dozen yards behind her. She turned around and walked through some more trees, eyes flicking between head height and her scroll.

When she reached the point that her scroll said Harglove was at, she didn’t see anyone. She peered into the distance. Something smelled horrible. It was coming from right in front of her, so she looked down.

There, directly in front of Yang, lay the two halves of Harglove Craft’s bisected corpse. Blood pooled around her shoes, and his organs were scattered across the ground wildly, as if they’d fallen out of him as he fell to the ground. She felt sick, but she somehow didn’t throw up.

“Oh.” She felt numb.

She turned around, and started to walk back the way they had come. If she couldn’t make it to the motorcycle before she was found by some more Grimm she wasn’t sure what she would do.

###### Blake

“Something’s wrong.” Blake narrowed her eyes at Weiss. She could tell, xyr heart rate was unusually aggravated, even though they were simply cuddling in the dorm in the aftermath of xyr shopping trip with Ruby, who had gone off to try and find someone to teach her to fight with nunchucks.

Weiss sighed. “Bloody unfair vampire senses.” Xe muttered, then spoke normally. “My father has cut me off. I expected it to happen sooner, as I have been ignoring his calls, and I can only presume he has finally accepted that his curse failed.”

“Is that going to screw with your life?” Blake shifted, letting Weiss bury xyrself further into her arms.

“No. It is merely a petty tactic to control me. Fortunately, I have more than sufficient personal funds that he does not know exist. Furthermore, he has not yet disowned me, though I have no doubt that he is searching for an excuse to do so.” 

“An excuse like the fact that you’re dating a Faunus girl, or dating multiple women?” Blake didn’t want to think it. She already knew and accepted that Weiss wished to avoid public displays of affection because xe simply desired privacy, not for a purpose like that. But she felt the need to be sure, and to ask.

“That would not constitute a legal justification to disown me as a child, but yes, it would certainly be enough to convince the shareholders to bar me from any position of power within the company.” 

“Well, that doesn’t matter then.” Blake nodded, satisfied.

“What!” Weiss immediately sat up and turned xyr head, nearly eschewing Blake’s embrace entirely. Xe glared at Blake with rare genuine anger and shock, not just xyr occasional veneer of such. “What are you talking about? Of course inheriting control of the SDC matters to me.”

“But you said that you intended to work against the damage the SDC has wrought, and to restore honor to your name, didn’t you?” Blake frowned, surprised by Weiss’ reaction.

“Yes. That is my goal.”

“Right. So then becoming the new CEO of the Schnee Dust Company would be antithetical to that goal, therefore it doesn’t matter.” 

“Have you gone mad?” Weiss fully disentangled xyrself from Blake’s limbs, and a sinking feeling began to settle in her gut. “Becoming the CEO is precisely how I will correct my father’s mistakes.”

“Correct his mistakes?” Blake scowled. Why was Weiss ignoring the obvious? “You think that’s going to actually do anything important? You think that the problem with Atlas is just him?”

“No, of course not.” Weiss eyed Blake warily as xe put obvious effort into keeping xyr voice calm. “But as the position of power I have the most direct access to, it can allow me to enact broad and significant changes well beyond what I would accomplish as a simple huntress.”

Blake sighed, and fell back as she shook her head. “Weiss, you won’t be able to do anything important as the CEO of a company, no matter how big and important that position makes you. It doesn’t matter how much economic and political power you have, no one can make meaningful change to a system designed from the ground up to resist change and to exploit the people while working within that system.”

“What exactly are you implying?” Weiss’ eyes narrowed dangerously. “What exactly did you expect me to do in pursuit of my goals, if not be CEO?”

“Use your wealth and status to help overthrow capitalism, obviously.” Blake tilted her head to the side. “It’s the only real solution to the inequality we face, not just racially, but as a collective working class.”

“Overthrow...” Weiss sputtered, xyr face turning red with rage. “What is wrong with you! You... You... violent anarchist!”

“Anarcho-communist, mind you.” Blake corrected gently, then proceeded to immediately regret her decision as Weiss got up and started to storm out of the room. “It’s important that no one mistake me for an anarcho-capitalist, those people are idiots.” She should probably just stop talking. 

“I can’t believe you. After all your talk of joining the White Fang as a pursuit of justice and wanting to help people, your true ideology is one that consists of nothing more than the destruction of those who you believe did you wrong. You disgust me.” Weiss paced the room, hands clenched into fists behind xyr back as xe muttered under xyr breath. “Vindictive, insidious, hateful, dangerous, _wrong_ ideas.” Xe turned on xyr heel and glared at Blake, suddenly shouting. “Don’t you understand you fool? It’s wrong! What do you have to say for yourself?” In the brief moment that Blake hesitated, xe stormed out the door and slammed it behind xyr.

Of course Weiss would be hostile to anyone who challenged xyr indoctrinated conceptions about class structure and economics, but Blake had thought that nearly two months of being tutored in Faunus history would be enough for Weiss to pick up on some of the inherent motivations and problems motivating human discrimination. 

Stupid, stupid Blake. Worthless idiot. She shouldn’t have bothered and contradicted Weiss like this, it was wrong. She didn’t know anything, she had no right to grandstand. She shouldn’t be the one trying to tell others what to do and what was right, should just shut up and go along with it and be supportive like a good girlfriend...

No one was there to see the tears falling down Blake’s cheeks, or the shadowy shroud that slowly enveloped her, leaving nothing behind.

###### Ruby

“You want me to teach you to fight with a weapon combination of a hand-mounted chainsaw and bladed shotgun-nunchucks?” Velvet’s ears stood up in disbelief.

“Their names are Ashley and Boomstick, and yeah. Since you can use all sorts of fighting styles with your semblance I thought you might be able to help. It’s a really weird combination of weapons, and no one really has any advice for me.” Ruby smiled hopefully.

“I can’t help, actually. I’d like to, but my semblance doesn’t work like that. It lets me be proficient with any fighting style I see, but it’s instinctual knowledge, not intellectual. I can’t use it to teach, because I only know it in the moment that I’m using it to fight.” Velvet tapped a finger against her chin. “There is someone I know who specializes in weird fighting styles though.”

“That’s not going to work babe.” Coco joined the conversation from across the room. “There’s no way she can handle him.”

“Not your decision!” Velvet decisively shouted back, then turned to Ruby again. “He’s very strict, which you know, when Coco is your leader and you think someone’s strict... he’s a lot.”

“Neither of us are strict, actually. We’re hardasses, there’s a difference. Velvs just doesn’t like to curse outside of sexy time.” Coco casually flipped Velvet off with her back turned. “Don’t give me that look, it’s true.” Velvet was indeed frowning indignantly at her.

“I can handle it.” Ruby shrugged. She trained with Uncle Qrow, the hardest of asses. There was no training regiment that could possibly scare her off, not after being thrown into the Grimm-infested woods with a blindfold on for three days and told to survive at the age of sixteen. Or losing an arm on her first venture into said woods. Sure, academically and socially, she knew she tended to be a pushover if she wasn’t specially invested in a subject, but she didn’t shirk on training. Training was mostly just muscle power, not nearly as limited in supply as brain power.

Coco laughed derisively.

“Alright,” Ruby rounded to face Coco. “What’s your problem? You offered to help me and my team when we first met, but now you’re just sitting there... menacingly and not believing in me when I’m out here trying to get important things done.”

“Yeah, but I won’t help people who won’t help themselves. The way I see it, you’ve been depending on everyone else to cope with your issues for you. Now,” Coco swiveled her chair in a half circle, facing Ruby with a smirk, “I’m ultimately just an outsider, so I’ll admit that I could be wrong. But if you’re so sure that you can handle what’s in store for you, why not make things more interesting? If you can manage to meet his standards for two weeks, not only will I gain a significant amount of respect for you, I’ll eat my beret. But when you fail, you’ll have to do my team’s laundry for the rest of the semester, deal?”

Ruby frowned, deep in thought. Was she relying on people too much lately, still? Even after she had resolved to do it less? No, she shook her head. The support she’d been seeking was limited and needed. It might be true that she still wasn’t doing enough as a leader though. Making sure they kept up with combat training seemed like a minimum standard, and she couldn’t think of much other than that that she’d done.

“Please don’t eat your beret, it's very nice. I’d rather get something practical out of the bet, like say, you’ll make my outfit for the Beacon Dance next semester. I think that’s a fair bet?” Ruby asked, not sure if she was being fair given the amount of work Coco had to do to make an outfit.

“It’s a deal.” Coco hawked up a glob of saliva and spit in her hand, then offered it to Ruby, who stared at it nervously.

“Uh, normally I’d be fine with that, but I’m not right now.” Ruby frowned. Maybe this was actually the norm now? “Actually, I would have been fine with it before, but not at this point in my life. Not any kind of handshake or thing that requires touching.”

Coco cocked an eyebrow. “How do you intend to fight people then?”

“Huh?”

“What are you going to do when you fight someone who uses holds as a part of their fighting style?” 

“I... hadn’t thought of that. I’m sort of focused on not being depressed all the time right now.” Ruby wrapped her wings around herself awkwardly, she felt too vulnerable. Just the thought of fighting someone like that was making a pit of nerves built up in her stomach.

“That’s valid, but considering how that kind of thing is going to affect combat performance is part of your job. You’re a freshman, so you still have a margin for error. Be thankful for that.” Coco nodded, then turned around and went back to whatever she had been doing before. “I’ll see you in two weeks.”

“Right. So who is this guy? You still haven’t told me.” Ruby looked back at Velvet.

“He’s _our_ mentor.” Velvet sighed. “His name is Shiroe, and his semblance lets him create any weapon he’s seen, but he has to know how to use them himself, so he studies everything like crazy, and he’s always on the lookout for creative new fighting styles to add to his repertoire. If he decides you’re clever enough, he’ll probably work with you to develop a fighting style.”

###### 

Shiroe was probably the least unique looking person Ruby had seen at Beacon so far, except team CDNL, who she had nearly forgotten existed until Yang’s absence had emboldened them, and Pyrrha’s presence had quickly unemboldened them. (And Weiss’ presence. And Blake’s presence. And Nora’s presence. Et cetera.) He had short black hair, wide glasses, stood a little bit taller than her, and wore a white cloak over a blue dress shirt.

“Alright, show me what you can do.” Shiroe gestured Ruby into the center of an already occupied training ring the moment she entered the room alongside Velvet. “Steele, focus on defense and not breaking her aura, but don’t let her do whatever she wants in there either.”

“Dude, I know.” Steele was a large man, armed with a tower shield and a heavy bastard sword, each one wielded with a single hand. Ruby could barely even see him behind the shield, but it sounded like he was rolling his eyes affectionately as he said it. “This is like the fifth time this semester.”

“And yet you’ve forgotten every time I don’t remind you.” Shiroe smiled as he pushed the bridge of his glasses up his face.

“Which was once, the very first time, before you even explained what we were doing.” Steele sighed melodramatically, then raised his shield. “Whatever, whenever you’re ready.”

Ruby looked at the heavily armed man before her, drew her weapons, and tried out the most obvious tactic she could think of to get around that shield. She ran up to him, then activated her semblance and split into two groups of petals that reformed behind him. But as she raised Ashley to strike, the tower shield slammed down before her, without her opponent even turning around. Then in her moment of surprise, the pommel of a sword slammed against her head, knocking her back.

“You’re probably wondering how he did that.” Shiroe’s voice projected clearly through the training room. “The location of the handle of his shield is adjustable. When you predictably tried to circle behind him, he simply flipped it over to guard his back, shifting the handle’s position to do so.”

Ruby had to fight an immediate desire to stop fighting and take a closer look at the shield as she rolled under the blade of the sword being swung at her. Okay, so she was supposed to do clever things to fight here. The tower shield was too tall and wide and to reach around with the barrel of Boomstick, so she needed some other way of getting around it. Exploratively, she tried to get in close to Steele, but he kept bashing her away with his shield and following up with a swing of his sword.

“Consider your weapon’s moving parts.” Shiroe’s voice instructed her impassively.

Moving parts? Ashley’s chain? Ruby’s eyes widened with excitement as she caught on. She charged forward again with a grin, and parried the sword moving at her with the barrel of Boomstick, then raised Ashley and let the chain hook onto the top of Steele’s shield, then jumped, the chainsaw’s motor pulling her over his head as she fired a few shotgun rounds in midair. They sent her flying back and out of the reach of a counterattack.

“Stop!” Shiroe commanded. “I’ve seen enough. This is fascinating.”

“Damn, that’s high praise, coming from him.” Steele folded his shield and hung it at his belt along with his sword.

“So you’ll teach me?” Ruby looked at Shiroe excitedly.

“At first, you need to be broken from your current mindset before you can effectively fight with dual weapons. I’m guessing you normally fight with something two handed and specialized for fighting Grimm. A scythe, perhaps?” Shiroe’s glasses reflected light ominously as he pushed them up his nose once again.

“Sniper-scythe, actually.” Ruby preened, and let her wings spread proudly. “My first baby.”

“You keep disregarding minor opportunities and battles in favor of searching for a decisive blow, even though such tactics are only useful against Grimm, who are often unaffected by minor wounds. As a result, you keep using your chainsaw solely as a tool to create an opening for your shotgun when, as you have demonstrated, it is a versatile weapon in its own right.”

“That’s really good advice, thanks.” Ruby nodded appreciatively. “Boomstick also does this, but I don’t have any idea how to use nunchucks.” She unfolded the barrels of Boomstick into two cylinders attached by a chain.

“Even more interesting. I can teach you to use those as well, yes.”

“Can we start right away then?”

“Oh, yes. Though I assume no responsibility for any danger to your person that might ensue.” Shiroe grinned, and Ruby gulped nervously.


	31. Shadows' Embrace

_In the following text, {}1 indicates content redacted to those without security clearance. The number indicates the degree of security clearance required to access enclosed content._

Name: Harglove Craft  
Residence: None  
Age:{unknown, possibly as old as humanity itself}4  
Species: Human  
Semblance Name: Strange Eons  
Semblance Ability: {The subject’s soul never vacates his body, theoretically even if that body is incinerated or chopped into numerous small pieces. He is thus believed to be utterly incapable of dying, and will eventually be healed and restored to life by his aura, regardless of the wound.}4  
{Handler’s Notes: In his ancient age, Harglove does very little to affect the world, his psychology is likely at least somewhat alien when compared to our own, despite the fact that he is genetically human. He mostly wanders, and watches the world, occasionally developing a close friendship with people who appear to be tangentially relevant to the course of history. Whether this is a coincidence is unknown and unlikely, though he has never perceptibly affected major historic events.}4  
{Threat Classification:Cooperative}2  
Security Clearance Level:2

{Name: Information withheld by handler  
Residence: Beacon Academy(Student)  
Age:18  
Species: Faunus, Vampire  
Semblance name: Information withheld by handler  
Semblance Ability: Information withheld by handler

Handler’s notes: The subject is a non homicidal vampire, whose intentions are to become a hunter. They are young, friendly, and simply seeking justice, as well as potentially redemption for past misdeeds that it would be a violation of my position as a counselor to reveal. Their semblance is not yet fully developed, but as is common in vampires, the alterations that have occurred are similar in nature to their original semblance, and it’s extraneous functions are powered by consumed blood, rather than aura. A glut of available blood from the subject’s romantic partner and lack of expenditure of power has apparently had invigorating effects on them. While they have expressed concerns that it may result in negative consequences, I do not expect such an event. I suspect that they will instead experience rapid power development, perhaps even the establishment of abilities they may otherwise never develop.  
Threat Classification: Cooperative  
Security Clearance Level:0}3

**-Huntsman Association Database, Registry of Extrahuman Persons of Interest**

Dear Thumbelina,

The new demihuman is a vampire? And you are only now reporting this? Why have you allowed it to live, much less remain on campus? How can you possibly justify endangering all of our students by allowing this dangerous creature to roam freely as a matter of confidentiality? I demand explanations, and I assure you that at the next staff meeting I will bring this up and move to eject it.

-Harold Mulberry

Dearest Harold,

Perhaps I should remind you that I myself, am an incredibly dangerous creature. One which will not hesitate to act by any means to defend the rights of demihuman students on this and any other campus, especially when those students are far, far, better and more moral people than certain blustering professors. If you wish to keep your nepotistically obtained position at this school, I recommend that you keep your filthy mouth shut.

-With love, Thumbelina Peach

###### Ruby

As soon as she got back to her room, Ruby collapsed into bed. As it turned out, training could in fact rely on brain power, and probably should. She was just so used to Crescent Rose that she hadn’t had to think about using her for a long time. Physically, she was fine because of aura, but man was she out of spoons.

Just as Ruby was about to make herself comfortable in a blanket cocoon with her scroll and a few regular cookies, she heard Weiss muttering angrily to xyrself. It sounded like xe was in a genuine bad mood, something that was very rare lately.

Ruby sighed. She should probably make sure Weiss was going to be alright. Something had already felt off with xyr when they’d left the clothing store earlier. It was more important to make sure Weiss was alright than to rest anyway.

“Weiss, is something wrong?” Ruby leaned over the edge of her bunk to ask the question, causing Weiss to scan the room at eye level for a moment before finding her.

“No, nothing at all.” Weiss replied stiffly, only to then go into a tirade. “It’s not as if my girlfriend has betrayed my trust and revealed herself to be a violent idealogue after all, whose sole desire is the complete destruction of civilization and society as we know it.”

“What?” There was no way that was true.

“She inadvertently revealed to me that she is a communist.” Weiss scoffed.

“What?” Why would that be a bad thing?

“You know, communists. Those people who want to take away everyone’s freedom and force them to eat nothing but stale bread once a day while tending failing crops by stealing all the wealth from the people who deserve it and making the government oppress everyone.” Weiss accentuated xyr statement with an ironically bad pantomime of eating bread.

“Okayyyyyyy.” Ruby rubbed her temples, taking a deep breath. What would Coco do? “I don’t have the background knowledge, the linguistic skills or the mental and emotional energy to have this conversation with you about politics. You shouldn’t need someone to tell you this but you fucked up. You fucked up a lot. Have you even considered that Blake might have run away again and that you should have told me about this?” Knowing Weiss, xe had shared xyr opinions very abrasively.

“I...” Weiss looked down into xyr lap, eyes wide like a scolded puppy. “She can’t have been scared off for long. She can’t.”

“So you’re going to find her, apologize, and listen to what she has to say?” It was more of an order than a question.

“No, of course not.” Weiss went back to scowling. “My reaction was perfectly justifiable, and I would not dare sleep in the same room as a communist, if it were not for the fact that returning to Atlas is my only alternative.”

Ruby groaned. She just wanted to take a nap. “Wiess, I need you to use your brain right now, because I don’t have the energy or the inclination to put up with this bullshit.” Weiss started to interject, but she cut xyr off. “No, shut it. I can’t believe you’d let one little thing like this completely change your perception of Blake. You’ve done so well about dealing with your prejudices again Faunus, and with accepting me being neurodivergent. And now you’re throwing all of that away on the principle of judging someone over something extraordinarily nuanced after hearing nothing more than a single term to describe Blake’s views. You need to ask yourself whether you trust your father’s interest in giving you an unbiased political education or Blake more, and when you’ve figured it out, you’re going to get out there and scour campus for Blake so you can apologize.”

Weiss blinked, stunned into silence.

Satisfied that she had done everything she could, Ruby glared at Weiss one last time before falling back into bed and sliding on her headphones. She wished she was actually capable of taking naps.

###### Raven

Forced to leave Yang, Raven briefly returned to Summer’s house and fetched her clothes and weapon. She was able to make a portal far enough away from Summer to be on the other side of a wall, so she believed that she had gone unnoticed. With that done, she subtly portaled back to Yang, who was still walking to her destination, and returned to where the motorcycle had been left to wait.

She couldn’t believe what she’d done. Tossed aside Vernal, taken advantage of the person whose opinion of her she cared about most, fallen back into her old feelings for that idiot blond. She didn’t even deserve any of them. They were all too good for her, they always had been. She thought that she should probably let Yang be as well, but she was too selfish to be alone again, not right now.

It wasn’t until Yang was near that Raven noticed the obvious emotional distress radiating from Yang through her semblance. In the scant seconds she had before Yang would be able to see her again she only barely managed to put up a veneer of stability for the sake of comforting her daughter.

“What happened?” Even as Raven said it, it was obvious. The man she had been traveling with was no longer present.

“He died.” Yang shrugged, and her voice cracked. “Another person died. Because of me. If I’d fought harder and faster he would have been fine.If I had killed more lancers, more quickly.”

“No.” Raven frowned, and scooped Yang into a hug. “You survived because you’re strong, be proud of that. He was inadequate, and that’s something that’s beyond your control. So stop it. Stop blaming yourself.”

Yang started to cry, and Raven didn’t let go until she stopped. It would be fine to stay by Yang’s side and travel for a while, much better than going back and facing Summer.

###### Ren

“Full house, aces and eights.” Ren threw down their cards with just enough smugness to aggravate the others into trying to win back their losses, then swiftly scooped the winnings into their pile to the sound of a collective groan from their teammates. In the moment that everyone else’s eyes were focused on the bounty of lien, they visually scanned the room, certain that they could still feel eyes on them.

“This is ridiculous, how is your poker face so good?” Jaune bemoaned. “It’s like I’m trying to win a staring contest with a boarbatusk.”

“It is the product of a lifetime spent repressing my trauma and internalizing my self-hatred.” Ren deadpanned.

There was an awkward silence.

“That was a joke,” Ren clarified, “though the best humor is rooted in truth.”

Nora was the first to burst out laughing, and Jaune and Pyrrha quickly caught on with slightly more awkward chuckles. Silently, Ren grinned as well, satisfied with making Nora happy. 

“Alright, well, it’s my turn to deal.” Jaune took up everyone’s cards and began to reshuffle the deck, his eyes focused on the dwindling pile of cash before him. He had an almost painfully terrible poker face, though it was rather endearing in it’s own way.

The back of Ren’s neck pricked, and they looked around the room again, It definitely felt like they were being watched, but there couldn’t possibly be anyone but the four of them in the room. They narrowed their eyes, unsettled.

Nora won the next hand, partially because Ren was too distracted by the growing certainty that they were being watched, but also because Nora was having so much genuine fun that no one could read whether her hand was good or bad, not even Ren.

“I’m skipping this hand.” Ren got up, but left their lien on the table.

“Thank you.” Jaune clasped his hands together and inclined his head to Ren. “Daddy really needs to make up for his lost gatcha funds.” Ren nearly died, only barely restraining themself to a hidden smile.

“Daddy?” Pyrrha tried her best not to snort with laughter, and failed.

“I decided that it was gender affirming in my head but now that I say it out loud it just sounds weird.” Ren could imagine in precise detail what Jaune’s blush looked like at that moment.

“Well I’d call you daddy any day.” Nora proclaimed, in a way that left it uncertain as to whether she understood the implications of what she was saying.

Jaune sputtered nervously, but Pyrrha suddenly stopped laughing, and Ren’s smile faded as well.

With a shake of the head, Ren refocused themself on figuring out who or what was watching them. They quickly scanned the room, and there was no one there. They looked around again, more slowly this time, scouring every inch that was visible from their current position, where they were sure they were being watched.

Their eyes slipped over a spot in the corner of the room, more quickly than they intended to look away. That was strange, and merited closer attention. They tried to look in the corner, but there was nothing there. Not nothing, as in simply air and a wall, but nothing. A Void that seemed to defy even the absence of light. Ren stopped trying to look directly at it.

“Do we have a yardstick?” Ren briefly interrupted the poker in progress.

“A yardstick?” Jaune squinted. “What do you need a yardstick for?”

“It’s complicated.” Ren shrugged. It would probably be better not to give away that they were onto whatever the thing in the corner was if they could.

“Want to use Miló?” Pyrrha hefted said spear innocently. 

“No, I think it needs to be disposable, just in case.” Ren blinked. Did she carry that at all times? “Anything long that can poke, essentially.”

“Like my dick?” Nora cackled at her joke, and Jaune and Pyrrha both blushed.

“Is it disposable?” Ren deadpanned.

“Sometimes.” Nora shrugged uncertainly as her smile dimmed a little bit. 

“How about this?” Jaune lifted a marshmallow skewer for Ren’s inspection.

“Where did that come from?” Pyrrha eyed the skewer curiously. It bore a distracting resemblance to her spear.

“I was going to take everyone camping, but Professor Goodwitch wouldn’t give us permission to go into the Emerald Forest.” Jaune smiled nervously.

“Screw her, let’s go camping anyway! Soon!” Nora laughed, then pulled Jaune into a headlock. “I love camping, it’s great, I know soooo many repeat after me songs and scary campfire stories! Plus, maybe we’ll get lucky and get attacked by a big pack of ursa for me to smash.”

“We shouldn’t...” Jaune looked at them all uncertainly.

“It would be fun to break the rules a little.” Pyrrha mused.

Ren subtly took the skewer and left their team to pressure Jaune into planning an elaborate campout scheme. 

At what they could only hope was a safe distance from the strange coroner of the room, Ren closed their eyes, and extended the skewer, tracing it along the wall in the direction that they knew the corner should be in, careful not to scratch the paint. It trailed gently along the wall, until it didn’t. They poked directly in the direction of the corner, and the tip of the skewer didn’t hit anything, so they pulled it back.

Inspection of the skewer revealed that it seemed normal. No warping or extreme temperature differential had been applied to it in it’s strange journey. So Ren closed their eyes and felt their way along the wall until their hand slipped into the same space that shouldn’t be there as the skewer hard.

The air was about two degrees cooler in the space that their hand entered. They felt around blindly, trying to figure out what was in there, but they couldn’t reach anything, so they moved forward until they were in it up to the elbow. Their hand collided with something soft yet firm. They tried to identify its shape, and found what was definitely long hair. A head.

Ren’s hand brushed against something bulbous, triangular, and soft on the top of the head. Cat ears? Blake’s head? Blake was the only Faunus they knew whose ears these could possibly be. They quickly moved away from the ears and moved aside large amounts of hair, looking for the mystery person’s shirt collar. Then they dragged them out into the room as gently as they could.

Once Ren was reasonably sure that the bodies of both themself and their passenger were out of the strange void, they opened their eyes. It was indeed a Blake that sat before them, curled into the fetal position, her eyes blankly staring at nothing. She hadn’t even responded to being manhandled out of her... void? There was only one thing that they knew how to do in a situation like this. They put a hand on Blake’s shoulder and activated their semblance, enshrouding both of them in monochromatic numbness.

Blake’s muscles slowly began to relax as the semblance diffused through her, uncurling as she looked up, almost sleepily. “How did I get here?”

“Yeah, how did she get here?” At some point, Jaune had noticed that Ren was doing something weird, and now the previous poker players were staring at Ren, who had seemingly just pulled a cat out of thin air.

“She was just in that corner.” Ren pointed at said corner with their free hand, but it was now back to being a very normal looking corner. “Inside of some... thing.”

“Hey Blake,” Jaune carefully sat cross-legged in front of Blake as Ren maintained their semblance, “can you tell us what’s going on?”

Blake furrowed her brow. “I had a fight with Weiss.” Her voice was eerily calm, like everyone’s was under the influence of Ren’s semblance. “She stormed out, and I had a flashback. And then... I was somewhere cozy and dark.”

“If I release my semblance, will you be okay?” Ren tried to avoid using their semblance for this long if it wasn’t for the sake of fighting Grimm. It just wasn’t healthy.

“Define okay.”

“Good enough.” Ren stepped back, and watched uncomfortably as Blake’s breathing quickened and she hugged her knees to her chest.

“Fuck.” Blake winced at nothing, her eyes already heavy with shame. Her voice turned suddenly raspy, as if she had been stranded in a desert without water. “I’m such an idiot.”

“Hey,” Jaune frowned, “don’t spread lies about my friends like that.”

Blake just curled further in on herself, her ears pinned tightly against her head.

“Do you want to move somewhere more comfortable than the floor?” Nora did her best to encourage Blake.

Ren silently retreated. They weren’t any good at this part.

Blake muttered something quietly, then managed to say it louder, though her voice only seemed to be getting more strained. “Darker. Too bright. Sun bad.”

Quickly, Ren realigned the blinds, cutting off the evening sunlight that had been illuminating the room.

“Find Ruby, Weiss. Tell-” Blake coughed dryly, she seemed to be getting visibly weaker and more strained. “Tell them I’m thirsty. Too thirsty. Need both to help. You all need to leave now, not safe near me.”

“What’s going on?” Jaune tried to get closer to Blake, but Pyrrha put a hand on his shoulder.

“We should just do what she asks. Something very strange is happening.” Pyrrha shot a pointed look Nora’s way, interrupting a half-begun question. “But this isn’t the time to pry about it.”

“Yeah, sorry.” Jaune nodded and started to leave the room, though not without one last worried look at the room behind him. “I’m worried, but I’ll take care of what you’re asking for.”

Ren followed, as did Nora and Pyrrha.

###### Weiss

Ruby was right. Weiss knew that. Of course nothing from xyr education was wholly reliable with regard to ethics or politics, handcrafted by xyr father as it was. But if xe didn’t have that what was there? Xe couldn’t accept the idea of knowing nothing, that would be indicative of a severe personal failure to make up for the education xe knew was biased. There had to be something for xyr to believe in with _some_ degree of certainty.

Blowing up the way xe had was beginning to leave a bitter aftertaste in the back of xyr mouth, in addition to the concern for Blake’s wellbeing that Ruby had instilled in xyr. For a time, Weiss had allowed one insignificant detail to override xyr entire time spent getting to know Blake, and that was unforgivable, it was just as bad as xyr father’s attitude towards Faunus.

There was still that odd trepidation gnawing away at Weiss’ thoughts, uncertainty instilled by everything xe had known and thought up to this point, one more immediate and powerful than xyr feelings about the Faunus or White Fang had been, as at least xe had known better in some regard with those subjects. Xe certainly couldn’t imagine even beginning to agree with Blake’s position, even when xe figured out a way to accept it. Xyr grandfather had been a visionary, and xe respected him as a role model.

When Weiss spontaneously received a text from Jaune saying that Blake was in the JNPR dorm and apparently dangerously thirsty, xe spared no time in rushing back to a place ironically close to where xyr search had begun.

“I think you should go in first.” Ruby was already waiting outside the door, though she seemed hesitant to enter. “In case she can’t control herself very well. It’s sort of heartless of me, but I don’t think I could handle... her doing something without being careful. Sorry.”

“Hush. I’ve personally assumed this duty regardless, and if she is in need I will see to it that she is fine, whether or not we may still be in a relationship.” Weiss brushed Ruby aside and entered the dark room first. “Blake?” Xe couldn’t see anything beyond the shaft of light that spilled in through the opened door.

“Come in.” Blake’s voice was raspy and deep, and seemed to be coming from a bed on the left side of the room.

“You can take what you need as soon as you like.” Weiss was prepared as xe stepped into the shadowy room and fumbled xyr way toward Blake’s voice. A familiar thrill of anticipation ran down xyr spine, despite the circumstances. Ruby followed shortly after, closing the door behind her.

As soon as Weiss was near the bed, a hand grabbed xyr own and pulled xyr into it, then a weight that could only be Blake pinned xyr down less ceremoniously than usual, even for when she was being rough. Xe calmly lifted xyr chin, exposing xyr neck.

There were none of the usual kisses or love bites that usually came as a preemption to it. Blake’s fangs sunk into Weiss’ neck without hesitation, and it hurt more than xe had been prepared for, making xyr wince slightly, though not enough to dislodge Blake. After a few seconds it faded back into deep-seated pleasure, and Weiss couldn’t help the slight moan that escaped xyr.

Blake stayed attached to Weiss for what seemed like longer than normal, though not long enough to cause more than a slight wave of lightheadedness as she pulled away. “Sorry. I really needed that.” Her voice wavered, she sounded ashamed.

“I won’t hear your apologies. You need what you need, and that is the end of it. It is I who must once again apologize to you for my judgemental behavior.” Weiss sighed sadly as Blake slipped out of the bed and xyr embrace.

“I sort of still need more blood. Sorry, but, Ruby, could I?” Blake’s voice was hesitant even though Ruby had agreed to be an emergency blood source, and Weiss could only now begin to pick out shapes in the darkness. The two of them were standing very close to each other.

“I’m actually not really sure if I’d be okay with it anymore.” The guilt in Ruby’s voice was palpable, and her wings were pulled tightly against her body. “I mean, geez, I would have been really excited to do it a while ago. I think I can though, as long as I’m the one who’s holding you to me. I want to try to help at least. Just... keep your hands in your pockets.”

“Thank you.” Weiss indistinctly saw Ruby’s arms wrap around Blake and pull her down to Ruby’s neck.

“Don’t worry about-ahhhh.” Ruby cut herself off with an adorable little moan that made Weiss blush. Xyr mind immediately wandered to less platonic reasons for Ruby to moan. Admittedly, even this reason wasn’t very platonic, but at least it wasn’t as explicit as the thoughts xe had been having lately. The subtle sounds of Blake drinking Ruby’s blood imprinted themselves on Weiss’ mind, and xe dearly wished it wasn’t too dark in the room for xyr to watch.

Ruby whimpered slightly when Blake pulled away with a heavy sigh. “Thanks. Whatever I did took a lot out of me.”

“What exactly did you do?” Weiss frowned. The unknown consequences of the way xe had treated Blake began to once again weigh on xyr mind.

“First, go ahead and bring JNPR in. I want to tell everyone what happened at the same time, and tell them that I’m a vampire.” Blake turned on the lights in the room, making Weiss blink and shade xyr eyes uncomfortably under the sudden brightness.

“Alright!” Ruby seemed to be very happy about what had just happened, and Weiss was surprised to find that xe was just glad to see Ruby had enjoyed it, rather than that xe had a desire to keep the intimate practice of blood drinking solely between xyr and Blake. If they even still had a relationship. Ruby pulled out her scroll and began typing, presumably to let Jaune know that his team could have their room back, given that the vampire within was now well sated of her bloodlust.

“Hey, are you alright?” Blake sat next to Weiss, and nearly took xyr hand before seeming to think better of it. “I didn’t bite too roughly and hurt you, did I?”

“No. It’s nothing.” Weiss folded xyr hands in xyr lap. Of course Blake didn’t want to casually touch xyr anymore. Not after xe’d blown up at her for no reason like an idiot.

“I still want to be your girlfriend, you know.” Blake gently whispered into Weiss’ ear, making xyr jump slightly.

“What?” Weiss was certain that xe was just hallucinating from blood loss.

“It’s not that bad of a fight, really. You hurt me, but if I wasn’t a living breathing boat full of trauma I’d have been fine and we could have talked it out under more normal circumstances, so I don’t hold it against you. It was dumb of me to think you would do anything but respond to what I said the way you did in the first place.” Blake wrapped an arm around Weiss’ shoulders.

“Don’t do that, it’s my fault for being an idiot.” Weiss reluctantly let xyrself lean against Blake.

“Oh, I’m not trying to deny that. As smart as you are, you’re also pretty dumb sometimes.” Blake snarked playfully. “I’m just saying, I was less empathetic about it than I should have been.”

“Really?” Weiss was still unsure about whether xe even deserved Blake, especially after this ready forgiveness.

“I’d let you kill me.” Blake smiled, but Weiss narrowed xyr eyes in suspicion.

“Is that meant to be a flirt, or are you secretly very depressed right now?”

“Why not both?” Blake shrugged suavely. “Either way, you’re the only kind of a ray of sunshine I appreciate basking in these days. So don’t think I’m letting go of you that easily.”

“As long as you don’t go expecting that I’ll agree with you about whatever that communism business is about.” Weiss quickly pressed a kiss against Blake’s cheek.

“Of course not. I’ll make sure to clear up your misconceptions, but as long as your end goals are justice and equality, I think we’ll find ways to reconcile our personal views into our actions.” Blake smiled, and gave Weiss a kiss on the lips, only to be interrupted by someone gently coughing.

“Not to interrupt, but...” Jaune stood awkwardly in the doorway. “Could you not make out on my bed?”

“This is your bed?” Weiss immediately broke out of Blake’s hold, stood up, and looked at the other three beds in the room. Xe moved quickly to the one that looked like it belonged to Pyrrha.

“Well that’s kind of mean.” Blake did a bad job of hiding her snicker.

“I am simply that gay.” Weiss shrugged, remorseless.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this but could you two flirt later and tell us about whatever that deal with Blake inexplicably appearing in our room was first?” Nora threw herself into her own bed, Ren and Pyrrha shuffling into the increasingly crowded dorm room with her.

“Right.” Blake silently made her way next to where Weiss had moved and took xyr hand. “So, first of all, I’m a vampire.”

“That is so hot!” Nora wasted no time in practically salivating at the revelation.

“Why is that everyone’s reaction?” Blake bemoaned, burying her face in her free hand.

“Because it’s true.” Weiss patted Blake’s shoulder reassuringly. “Not that I fetishize you. I think you’re incredibly hot regardless of your vampiric nature.”

Pyrrha coughed pointedly. “So you’re saying that vampires are real?”

“And a bunch of other stuff, yeah.” Ruby nodded.

“And Ren pulled you out of nowhere because of vampire powers?” Jaune’s face was scrunched.

“I’m actually not even sure what I did in the first place there.” Blake answered. “All I really remember is that I was having a flashback and then I was somewhere cool and dark, then Ren pulled me out. My vampire powers are sort of similar to my semblance, so far it’s just been some better shadow clones, but now I’m guessing that it somehow involves shadows more generally.”

“You had a flashback about him?” Weiss breathed the words as xe fully hugged Blake. And it was xyr fault. “I’m so sorry.”

“Hey, no. It’s not your fault for making a mistake, it’s his for doing what he did.” Blake returned the embrace momentarily before looking back at JNPR. “So could you explain what exactly led you to find me? It might give me an idea of what I can do.”

Ren told them exactly what events led up to them pulling Blake out of the corner of the dorm room, causing Blake to nod contemplatively.

“I’m reasonably sure that I never came into your room through the door, so maybe that means I can somehow teleport? And make a weird hidden pocket dimension or something.” Blake hummed. “Except that that drained me a lot in a few hours, so maybe it’s actually an unintended side effect of sustaining something for too long.”

Ruby snapped her fingers, then pointed dramatically at Nora. “I’m gonna banish you to the Shadow Realm, Jimbo.”

For reasons Weiss did not understand, Nora laughed.


	32. On The Road

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a very Yang-centric chapter with some communist propaganda on the side. Enjoy!

###### Blake

Blake was, as Weiss had said, secretly far more depressed than she was willing to let on. Her own comment about Weiss being like a ray of sunlight had made her dwell on thoughts of how much she missed her catlike habit of curling up in the sun’s rays. Technically, she still could, but it would be very uncomfortable. The best alternative would probably be cuddling up with Yang, a thought that made her miss Yang even more than she already had.

That and other distracting thoughts made it difficult to concentrate on actually explaining everything about vampirism to team JNPR. She was grateful when Weiss took over with a more general explanation of the supernatural, probably because xe had noticed her mood. 

“I got you something.” Weiss briefly released Blake’s hand as they returned to their dorm, grabbing a small rectangular box from xyr desk. Xe flitted back to Blake’s side and handed it over, an eager look on xyr face. 

“Don’t go thinking you can sway my heart with material possessions now.” Blake teased as she started to open the box.

“It’s not an apology bribe or anything, I got it while I was out with Ruby. I just wanted to get you something.” Weiss bit xyr lip nervously.

“I know, I was just teasing a little.” Blake quickly pecked Weiss on the cheek. “I don’t really think you’re trying to manipulate me, sorry.” She opened the box easily, and ahhed as she saw what was inside. Fabric of some kind, black and white. She lifted the fabric, and saw that they were silk gloves, four pairs, in black and white and fingerless and normal varieties. “My, someone is thirsty, aren’t they.” Casually, she slipped on the pair of white gloves.

There was an immediate increase in Weiss’ heart rate, and Blake could practically feel xyr eyes burning holes into the gloves as she experimentally wiggled her fingers in them.

Slowly, Blake turned her head and stared at Weiss head-on, imprinting every last detail of xyr anticipatory expression into her mind. She held out a hand, with her gloved pointer finger sticking out. “Suck.”

Weiss latched xyr mouth onto the finger. Warmth engulfed Blake’s finger and xe sucked gently, xyr eyes crossed to focus xyr gaze on her hand.

“Fuck. My depression is cured.” Blake’s voice was lower and rougher than she meant it to be. She was barely even joking, the thought of Weiss on xyr knees was pushing everything else out of her head. “You’re trying to seduce me, aren’t you?”

“Is it working?” Weiss smirked infuriatingly, only for xyr eyes to widen as Blake pushed xyr down against the bed and kissed xyr. She roughly captured xyr lip and let her fangs brush against it dangerously, drawing forth sweet moans.

She had been reserved for a while before. Everything with Adam, sometimes it felt like he had ruined everything he touched. But this was nothing like that, she wanted Weiss badly, and had for a while. What’s more, it felt good to do something just because she wanted to do it, trail fingers her across Weiss’ skin, freeing, even. That she would be the one in control helped.

“Yes.”

###### Yang

Not taking the motorcycle wasn’t really an option. They were in the middle of the wilderness with minimal food and water, multiple days away from Mistral, by foot. It was a weird coincidence that Harglove had decided to teach her to use it to a decent degree, but Yang was grateful. She wasn’t exactly sure what she would do with it when she got back either, probably turn it over to his estate? That sounded like the right death legalese.

There was something soothing about watching the road beneath her vanish beneath the wheels of the motorcycle. It was repetitive, hypnotic, and engrossing. Driving required just enough attention to stop her mind from wandering too far, while not being especially stressful, except for the few times that she and Raven fell off at high speeds. She was just learning after all, but at least they had aura.

It was painfully obvious that they were both on this little mother daughter road trip because they were both running away from something, even if Yang was fairly sure that running away was legitimately the best thing to do in her case. They understood that neither of them wanted to talk about it, so they didn’t. Harglove’s death was still a raw wound, anyway.

In some ways it wasn’t as bad as Vernal. After all, Yang barely even knew the guy. But it was also worse. She was pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to forget how his corpse had looked, the expression on his face had been _deathly._ She just wanted to get to Mistral, get a decent hotel room for a night, and have a nice relaxing emotional breakdown in a place where she wouldn’t have to worry about attracting Grimm. Then, she could get back to doing what she really needed to do. Finding what was at that point an old battleground.

They got back to Mistral a little after nightfall, and it wasn’t until then that Yang went to the Huntsman’s association mission board with the intent to file an incident report about Harglove’s death while Raven got them lodgings. Except that when she opened the mission debriefing menu at the mission board, Harglove wasn’t even listed as being a part of the mission. It was apparently just her, even though she wasn’t supposed to be able to take solo missions, and she certainly wouldn’t have taken that one solo, even when it was only the eighteen lancers it was supposed to be.

She would have tried to get help and figure out what was going on on the spot, but because of obviously stupid budget cuts there were only employees around to help hunters during the regular business hours of nine to five, so claimed the sign at the empty help kiosk. The entire place actually seemed rather neglected, which, again, really blatantly stupid. Everything was rickety in appearance, there was lots of dust. It was weird too, it wasn’t like Mistral couldn’t afford to maintain an essential service in good repair.

“Back so soon?” Raven sat on the hotel bed as Yang returned, carefully maintaining the dust coating on one of her blades. “Hunters’ association usually gives more of a damn than that when one of their humans die.” She had gotten a cane at some point in the process, rather than continue hobbling along on the metal cap that sat at the end of her leg, and it rested near the front door. She still didn’t have a prosthetic foot, for reasons Yang didn’t understand.

“Nobody was even there to help me figure out what was going on when the system told me that I went on that hunt by myself and that Harglove Craft doesn’t exist.” Yang shrugged as she tossed her jacket aside, then lay face down in bed and luxuriously spread her wings as she stretched. Lower Mistral’s streets and alleyways were annoyingly narrow and crowded, very different from Vale.

“He doesn’t exist?” It was nearly possible to hear Raven’s eyebrow crawling it’s way up her face.

“I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to try and talk to someone and figure it out. They reduced their business hours.” Yang shrugged, a little bit relieved that she wouldn’t have to deal with everything until after at least trying to get a good night’s sleep.

“That isn’t normal. Toss me your scroll.”

Yang raised an eyebrow in return, but complied and watched impassively as Raven started typing rapidly.

“Let’s see if I still have my security clearance with Vale.” Raven smirked. “Technically, I’m still a licensed huntress there, and even if I stopped working for Ozpin, I was privileged with a great deal of other information.” She hit enter with a flourish, then her eyes widened curiously as she read something. “Well, here’s your explanation.” She tossed the scroll back to Yang.

“What?”

“Just read it.”

Yang looked at the page the scroll was open to. The registry information of one Harglove Craft. Most of it restricted behind level three security clearance, all of it available to her. She read.

“What the fuck.” Yang blinked. “What the fuck? Was that entire mission some sort of elaborate ruse?”

“I don’t know, but I have a feeling that if you look up that motorcycle’s registration you’ll find that you own it. Of course, it’s also possible that he legitimately isn’t good enough of a fighter to have survived that fight, but it doesn’t matter, given that semblance.” 

“No, I think he was pretty damn good. He probably killed more lancers than I did.” Yang thought back to the way he had casually swung from lancer to lancer. “Meaning, that the entire result of that mission is that I gain a motorcycle, the skills to use it, and some trauma? For the sake of... something, apparently.” He had had that same weird aura of knowing more than you that Ozpin seemed to have. She had assumed it was just something especially powerful old people did to mess with young people.

“Possibly. The man seems very strange. Even the handler’s notes suggest he may have unfathomable intentions.” Raven shrugged. “But he’s not dead, which must be nice for you to know.”

“You know what? No. I don’t believe this. My best friend being a vampire, sure. No problem. This? It’s ludicrous. It makes no sense.” 

“It happened Yang, you have to accept it. Sometimes there just isn’t any logical sense behind someone or something’s actions, especially when dealing with the supernatural. It’s an important lesson, and it’s better that you’re learning it early.”

“I guess?” Yang was mostly just confused, but that was better than being depressed or guilty. She shook her head. “I’m going to just go cry in the shower for a while.”

“I’ll be here when you get back.”

###### 

Yang stepped out of the shower a little bit more put together than she had been before it. Raven was almost certainly right about everything that had happened being deliberate, even if it was inexplicable. She believed, and hoped that Harglove was actually out there and somehow perfectly fine. Smug, even, if he thought he had gotten away with his little plot.

Raven was fiddling with a spot at the small of her back as Yang stepped back into the hotel room, the place where her wings should have been. It reminded her of something Raven had said.

“When you mentioned hunters dying, you said they cared a lot about human hunters, and the way you said it...” Yang trailed off, not sure how to word what she wanted to say the right way. “You sounded like a lot of other Faunus I’ve known.” 

“Is there something wrong with that?” Raven scowled, inexplicably on the defensive.

“No. I was wondering if you consider yourself a Faunus now.” The White Fang and civilians alike thought like that, it wasn’t a bad thing, just Mistral’s reality.

Raven sighed heavily as she eyed Yang’s wings, though her attention seemed to be distant. “Tests say I am. Therefore, I suppose I am.”

“Mom, that’s not what’s important.” Yang frowned, then took a seat and wrapped a wing and arm around Raven in a dual hug. “Biology isn’t what defines us, it’s our experiences and our choices that make up our identity.” She couldn’t help smiling as she said it. Those were Ruby’s words.

Her smile faded almost immediately as she thought of why she was in Mistral to begin with, and what her attitude was towards the fact that they were biologically half siblings. She didn’t even believe the words she was using applied to her.

There was the usual moment of resistance before Raven leaned into and reciprocated the hug with a contemplative hum. “Giving me the power to turn into a bird was the second best thing Ozpin ever did for me.” 

“What was the first?” Yang deliberately set off on a tangent, sensing that Raven didn’t want to talk about it at the moment.

“Launch me off a cliff into the forest under a bunch of unreasonable rules about who would be my partner.”

“I can see that.” Yang sighed. “With the way you talk about each other, sometimes I’m almost surprised you ended up with Tai instead of Summer.”

Raven flinched out of Yang’s embrace as she hit a sore spot. “Don’t say shit like that.” She stood and began pacing the small room under Yang’s curious scrutiny. “It’s too soon.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Sorry.” Yang slumped into bed as sudden mental fatigue overcame her. Vernal’s death was still too fresh. “I’m going to sleep.”

“Goodnight.” Raven nodded in her direction and turned out the light before resuming her soundless pacing.

It didn’t take Yang long to fall asleep, though the sleep itself was restless.

###### 

The next morning, it was time to shove aside all of the extraneous business from the night before and get down to the most important thing Yang had realized she could possibly do during the time she had chosen to take in Anima. Finding Vernal, and giving her a proper burial, plus learning more about the circumstances leading up the attack on the camp, and maybe searching for or jailbreaking any survivors. 

She wished she had Blake here to help with the last one, but Raven’s ability to turn into a bird was probably going to be helpful if necessary as well. It would be nice not to get caught if it came to breaking someone out of jail, but there weren’t any extradition treaties between Mistral and Vale, so it wasn’t like it would get her kicked out of Beacon, so long as she wasn’t caught.

Meaning that after eating a hearty breakfast and confirming that yes, she was now legally the owner of one shiny yellow and black motorcycle, Yang walked into a certain infamous bar. A bar filled with men and women in purple cloaks, armed with daggers, and one woman in charge of them all.

“What do you want?” Lil’ Miss Malachite greeted Yang with a scowl as she walked in.

“I want to know why you reneged on your arrangement with the Branwen Clan.” Yang scowled back. Malachite was the one who had done something wrong here, how dare she treat Yang with an attitude like that?

“And what are you willing to pay for this information?” Lil’ Miss eyed Yang contemptuously. She probably did look pretty raggled, especially with the dark circles under her eyes. “I doubt that you can afford me.”

“Excuse you?” Yang returned the contempt in turn, resting a hand on her hip as her eyes narrowed. “Do you have any idea who I am? You owe me this information.”

“You’ll be flayed alive if you don’t do something about your manners, _child_.” Lil’ Miss’ glare intensified as she casually pulled out a knife and began to fiddle with it.

“My name is Yang Branwen. I’m here as a representative of my mother, to demand to know why you failed the clan.” Yang smirked as the threat faded from Malachite’s demeanor, shifting to grudging acceptance.

“Oh? And why wouldn’t Raven choose to appear in person?” Malachite casually began to clip her fingernails with the knife, and aura of disinterest surrounding her.

“As if I’d just reveal that information to you.” Yang rolled her eyes. Raven had stayed behind because if Mistral’s criminal underworld believed that she was dead she didn’t want to correct them. Malachite was just subtly fishing for more, as expected. “Just tell me the location of the camp’s ruins, the people behind the attack, the reason why you failed to warn the clan, and the locations of any known survivors, and I’ll be on my way.” She already knew where the camp was, but falling to ask for that information would reveal that she had someone with her already, who knew it’s location.

Lil’ Miss tsked, the knife in her hands disappearing as she pulled out a map and indicated the location of the camp. “This is where you’ll find the battlefield. I was attacked and bedridden by someone working for Lionheart shortly before the attack. The huntsmen took no prisoners, and anyone who may have escaped is likely laying low and living in the wild or hiding in a small town, either way, I wouldn't know them.”

“I see.” Yang turned on her heel and left without any other comment, only barely resisting the urge to punch a hole through one of the very obvious wooden beams supporting the ceiling on the way out. 

No prisoners. Not a single fucking one. It made sense superficially, there was never any doubt that the clan would fight to their dying breath, but hunters should be better than that. There were plenty of ways to disable an auraless opponent. Rounds with thin shells and the right amount of lightning dust were easy to come by and generally disabled people without killing them, or they could have simply had a hunter who’s semblance allowed for the easy subdual of those whose auras were broken. There were far too many methods for there to be an excuse for killing every single hostile who didn’t escape a planned raid, where there were no civilians to be protected.

###### 

It took three days to reach the place where the Branwen Clan had been destroyed while riding the newly christened Bumblebee. Neither Yang nor Raven talked much on the way to the battleground. They camped at night, and took it in shifts to keep watch for a few hours while the other slept. It wasn’t as much sleep as they should have gotten, but they weren’t going to waste sixteen hours a day on getting the right amount of sleep.

The first thing they noticed as they approached the camp was the stench. It reached them on the wind, and grew increasingly putrid as they got ever closer. The band of hunters who had wiped the clan off the face of the planet hadn’t even bothered to do something about the bodies of the people they had needlessly killed, and now they were rotting. Yang wanted to hurt them. Maybe worse, she wasn’t sure.

There was no choice but to wrap her bandanna around her mouth as they drew near the charred ruins of portable fortifications and tents. They would have to burn most of the bodies, she wasn’t strong enough to handle burying every last one of them. Only Vernal’s.

“She should be somewhere around here.” Raven limped up to a place near where her own tent had stood, seemingly oblivious to the stench of death surrounding her. At least the blood had seemingly all been washed away by rain at some point since the slaughter.

Yang scanned her surroundings for a body wearing Vernal’s battle gear. Most of the faces were distinguishable, but she couldn’t bear to linger on them. These were mostly people she’d grown up with. Her family, even if most of them had been slightly distant because of her status as their leader’s daughter.

As she searched, a crow fluttered between branches and cawed at Raven aggressively. Yang turned to it, immediately suspicious.

“I know that’s you, Uncle Qrow.” Yang engaged in a staring contest with the crow for nearly long enough that she was about to give in and admit that she’d made a mistake. Then, she won, and the crow flew down in front of her to shift into her uncle.

“What else have you told her?” Qrow glared at Raven, radiating irritation from his perpetual five o’clock shadow. She ignored him, still looking for Vernal.

“Enough to understand that you’re here because you want to find the Spring Maiden.” Yang crossed her arms and spat on the ground. She loved her uncle, but she didn’t love his devotion to Ozpin.

“That’s not the only reason I’m here.” Qrow frowned, and took a swig from his flask. “You think I don’t care about my sister-in-outlaw?”

Raven scoffed. “You never did before.” She turned a body over onto its back with the tip of her sword, and Yang saw that she was suddenly about to cry. She must have found Vernal.

Yang glared at Qrow and rushed over to her mom’s side. It was Vernal alright. The only wound was a stab wound that went straight into her heart, created by something thin enough that they could only tell it was there because of the hole it had made in her clothes. Yang quickly looked away again as a wave of nausea swept over her.

“Whoa there firecracker, I got you.” Qrow caught Yang as she was about to fall down and started rubbing her back in small circles as his other arm supported her in an endeavor to walk. “Come on, let’s take a seat somewhere where the smell isn’t so bad.”

Yang barely managed to avoid throwing up a Qrow led her slightly upwind of the camp and set her down with her back against a tree. Knowing had been one thing, of course Raven’s semblance was absolute in it’s knowledge of Vernal’s status, but seeing her corpse was something else. Horrifying certainty. True understanding that she was never coming back.

“I’m sorry you had to see that.” Qrow glanced back at the ruined camp. “Leo never wanted this, he got tricked by someone we think is from the Cult of Salem pretending to be Jacques Schnee, threatening him to take care of the clan or screw with the city’s dust imports. They probably wanted backup to help them steal the Maiden’s powers.”

“That’s not what I care about right now.” Yang growled.

“Right, sorry. I... you know. I’m not great at this.” Qrow left it at that and sat next to Yang. She could hear him taking a swig from his flask, so she held out her hand expectantly. It was placed into the hand without question.

“Yeah, I know.” Yang took a sip and grimaced, taken by surprise. This was the hard stuff. With an approving hum, she took a bigger sip, enjoying the way it burned her throat on the way down, then passed it back to Qrow.

“You didn’t already get kicked out of Beacon, did you?” Qrow tried to start a normal conversation between swigs, even if there was nothing normal about it.

“No, I just needed to give Ruby time away from me because of a massive fuck-up. Thanks for never telling me about your other favorite niece, by the way.” Yang's voice dripped with almost as much venom as the whiskey she was partaking in.

“What’s done is done.” Qrow growled. “There’s no point complaining about it now.”

“Yeah, like all the fucking times I made out with her.” Yang muttered. “And how I fell in love with her. There’s no taking any of that back now.” She took an especially heavy swig.

“You what!” Qrow probably would have done a spit take if he had had the flask. “Fucking hell, nobody told me about that.”

“Of course they didn’t.” Yang could feel resentment bubbling up within her. Resentment at the world and the secrets that had been kept from her, at the people who had killed Vernal, at herself for falling for Ruby. “It would just make everyone involved look bad for no reason, so why not just cover it up like everything else? Just deny our feelings for each other. That way, the only person who gets hurt is Ruby.” And her.

They sat there in silence, save the sound of drinking, and of Qrow pulling out a bottle from beneath his cloak with which to refill the flask. Yang got progressively more buzzed as time passed, and her desire to keep talking returned along with the pleasant fuzz that descended over her thoughts. She might have kept complaining to Qrow about Ruby, but at that point she was too drunk to really notice what she was saying. Eventually, she lost consciousness. Probably to sleep. Or drunkenness. It didn’t really matter.

###### Weiss

In the days following Weiss’ fight with Blake (and the mind-blowing makeup sex after said fight) Ruby seemed to be more distracted than usual. Certainly, she was busy training with Shiroe and learning to use her new weapons while still maintaining regular team training and study time with Weiss, but she also began to develop a habit of staring at both Blake and Weiss with an unreadable expression on her face when she thought neither of them were watching.

“I believe Ruby is becoming increasingly obviously attracted to us.” Weiss got down to business immediately in the time xe and Blake had designated to talking about their relationship. “Perhaps...”

“I’m reasonably sure she’s been having all sorts of thoughts about us since I drank her blood.” Blake nodded. “I think we should at least tell her everything, otherwise she’ll probably feel guilty about fantasizing about me. But... maybe we could ask her on a date?”

“At the very least she could definitely use some sort of stress relief quality time with both of us. Yesterday when she got back from training with Shiroe she was dead tired and she said she wished someone would take her out. When I asked whether she meant on a date or with a sniper rifle, she said to surprise her.” Weiss had worried over that. Ruby was not the kind to typically resort to dark humor.

“She’s been figuring out about touch more too. Maybe it would be alright to ask her.” Blake smiled nervously. “I really would like to try.”

“Yeah. We might be able to figure it out. At the least we should start by going ahead and explaining polyamory to her and telling her what we’re doing. It would probably make her less guilty if she realizes that she likes both of us.” Weiss returned the smile, and quickly kissed Blake on the lips. “And you’re sure that you’ll be okay if we start dating her?”

“As sure as I can be.” Blake kissed Weiss back, a little bit more deeply. “I feel really good about us, even if you’re a capitalist for now.”

Weiss rolled xyr eyes. Blake hadn’t stopped teasing xyr about it for days, even though xe was the normal one of them. “If you’re so sure about that why don’t we go ahead and commit to telling Ruby tonight, then talk about it?”

“Sure. We’ll ask Ruby out on a date tonight.” Blake grinned in a way that bore her fangs. “I look forward to drinking her blood again, and I bet she does too.”

“You pervert.” Weiss wanted to watch that, properly, in a situation where xe would be able to see what was happening.

“I can tell you want to watch that almost as badly as I want to taste.” Blake teased in retaliation. “Which of us does that make more of a pervert?”

“Nonsense.” Weiss stubbornly denied it, even as xyr mouth watered at the thought.

“Sure.” Blake pulled Weiss into her lap and ghosted her lips over xyr neck. “The most obscene person I know definitely doesn’t have any voyeuristic tendencies. I noticed that you borrowed Ninjas of Love, you know. I could smell you all over them.”

Weiss blushed violently as Blake teased xyr, too embarrassed and enjoying it too much to object.

“Anyway, what information about how capitalism is inherently dependent on exploitation and abuse to function shall I begin with?” Blake completely changed topics, even as Weiss was being overwhelmed with lewd thoughts.

“That’s not fair, you can’t distract me like this during a serious discussion.” Weiss gently pushed Blake’s face away from xyr neck. “Besides, the SDC is an outlier, they aren’t relevant to this.”

“Oh, I’m not talking about the SDC. Anyone who works full time and is unable to comfortably and independently sustain themself is being exploited. In other words, every minimum wage employee.”

“Minimum wage isn’t relevant to self-sustenance, those kinds of jobs are just for minors to work.”

“Then why does the Atlas Bureau of Labor Statistics say that fifty-seven precent of employees who make minimum wage or less are over the age of twenty-two?”

“Does that include waiting jobs and the income from tips?”

“Yes, it does. But even when restaurant employees make slightly more than that with the inclusion of tip income, the amount someone needs to be able to get by is quite a bit more than the minimum wage, and the trend of there being more adults than students or minors in that income bracket continues through amounts slightly more than minimum wage as well. The lower classes are inherently exploited and denied any means of reasonable sustenance.”

“Define reasonable sustenance.”

“It’s a basic moral principle that everyone deserves to be able to live in financial stability while working a single full time job, and maintain some degree of basic comforts.”

“I suppose that I can agree with that. That’s what the minimum wage is for, is it not?”

“Minimum wage is perpetually too little for that, especially for people with children or medical conditions that aren’t fully covered by insurance, which is all of them unless you’re already wealthy. But even if minimum wage were to increase to something like that prices would just go up as well for no reason other than that people can ‘afford’ higher prices because of the wage increases.”

“That’s not true, if wages increase by force, businesses need to increase prices to pay those wages.”

“No, they don’t. Not when they already have billions of lien in income per year. It’s not about being profitable for modern businesses, it’s about infinitely growing your profit margins. There’s no such thing as enough, and if they can exploit someone for profit they will. There are entire industries that exist for no reason, like mouthwash.”

“And how is communism supposed to help anything about this?”

“By destroying the power structures that lead to everything functioning solely for the sake of empowering the wealthy and giving control of businesses to workers.”

“Businesses only function because of the people who run them. You can’t just let a bunch of people who don’t know anything about business make decisions, they’ll make mistakes and cause everything to fall apart.”

“That’s not true. Farmers and smaller scale independent businesses have always existed, and only recently been deliberately sabotaged and absorbed into larger businesses for the sake of creating monopolies and dominating markets.”

They kept going back and forth long enough to nearly forget to eat lunch, neither gaining any real headway, though Weiss found that xe had little to say in contradiction to Blake’s claims. At the very least, it was among the most interesting conversations xe had ever had with Blake.


	33. We Still Have the Future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be writing more slowly than usual for a little bit since Yakuza: Like a Dragon came out and is incredible
> 
> Also, the information at the starts of chapters isn't strictly related to the chapter, it's mostly pure worldbuilding

“I would like all of you to stop what you’re doing right now and listen. Listen to the world around you, especially those of you living in Argus. What do you hear? In this modern age, I doubt that many of you will be able to hear silence, pressed together as we often are in endlessly bustling cities and towns. No, instead of silence, you hear the sounds of life and the living, going about their lives. But in Argus, there is only silence. Perhaps not literally, but the silence lingers, and it will linger for a long time.

“I hate silence. Silence can be more than an absence of sound, it can be the violence of a slit wrist. Every day throughout the kingdoms countless Faunus cry out for help with silent voices, just as the radio is silent though it fills the air with noises. The so-called silent majority, which the self-proclaimed moderates claim prevent the disasters of injustice we see approaching, are opposed to the callous efforts throughout the kingdoms from those who intend to uproot every last Faunus and banish them to Menagerie. If that’s true, if those people exist, I say to you this: your silence condemns us to death, prejudice, and poverty throughout the kingdoms. It is the silence of complacency and acceptance of the status quo, and it is the silence that emboldened the leaders of Argus to enact a massacre against a peaceful protest.

“For my entire life I have been aware that in time I would become the Chieftain of Menagerie. I never imagined that the day would come so soon, or so tragically. I see this position just as my father, and his father before him did, as an opportunity to better the lives of the Faunus, not just here, but in all four kingdoms. My grandfather did just that when he called a meeting between all the remaining Valian tribes a few months into the Great War and began a coordinated effort to retaliate against the local forces that were forcibly conscripting, relocating, and imprisoning entire tribes. When the Great War ended and king Oswald ensured that the treaty not only guaranteed us legal equality, but a continent of our own, he cried with joy, that mass war was no longer needed for the sake of our own survival.

“And yet now, what can only be described as genocide is once again taking place in all four kingdoms. It does not yet compare to the atrocities of the Great War, but these movements to forcibly remove all Faunus from their own homes in cities have end results that are just as heinous. With Argus and the death of my parents, the hand of peace my father dearly hoped to extend has been violently hacked away. It is not possible for us to win a war with our words, in which our foes are ready and willing to use guns. If the rights of those outside of Menagerie are to be preserved, there must be a revolution.

“I therefore have a simple ultimatum for the kingdoms of Vale, Mistral, Atlas, and Vacuo. Our freedom, or your lives.”

**-Ghira Belladonna, Chieftain of Menagerie, inauguration speech**

###### Ruby

Ruby couldn’t get the memory of Blake’s fangs sinking into her neck out of her head. She kept thinking about it when she was trying to fall asleep, or during her usual gay daydreams, alongside thoughts of Weiss. She hated it, and she wanted to stop. It was awful of her to be thinking about Weiss and Blake that way when they were perfectly happy in their own relationship without even knowing that polyamory was a thing.

So she focused on distracting herself by putting as much effort as she could into classes, training with both Ashley and Boomstick and Crescent Rose, working on Raven’s new foot, and doing things with Jaune, where it was easier not to get too distracted by gay thoughts. It was all tiring though, and she kept aching for more physical contact, even though she knew that she couldn’t handle it. It was probably obvious how she’d been trying to avoid needing Weiss’ help with any homework.

She wasn’t very surprised when Blake and Weiss made her sit down with them after only a few days of internally panicking over not being able to control herself.

“Alright, Ruby.” Weiss gave Ruby a stern look as crossed xyr arms. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” Ruby did a terrible job of lying.

“Ruby, you recently came to us and admitted that you felt left out, now all of a sudden you’re blatantly avoiding spending time with us even when we offer. Something’s up.” Blake was slightly more gentle in approach, and nudged Weiss with her elbow in gentle reprimand.

“It’s not important.” Ruby muttered. “It’s all in my head for being awful, and you’d just be mad at me if I told you anyway. So don’t worry about it.”

“Is it because of me drinking your blood the other day?”

“There was nothing wrong with that. I wasn’t against it.” Ruby writhed uncomfortably.

“I know you weren’t, you enjoyed it right? Did you enjoy it more than you think you should have?” Blake shot Ruby a meaningful look that even she could interpret.

“Yes.” Ruby squeaked out, flinching as she brought a wing in front of her and did her best to hide behind it. 

Instead of chewing her out, Weiss just sighed in a way that Ruby thought sounded almost happy. That couldn’t be right though.

“Don’t worry Ruby, it’s okay. I was actually hoping to hear that.” Blake’s voice was gentle.

“You, what?” Ruby peeked out at Blake and Weiss, dumbfounded.

“Do you know what polyamory is?” Weiss made Ruby’s jaw drop to the floor in an instant.

“Y-yeah!” Ruby stammered. “I... am. Am polyamorous.” Were they doing what she thought they were doing? This entire time, she’d been worrying over basically nothing? 

“Well, that makes things easier.” Weiss took Blake’s hand, a smile playing over xyr lips. “We want to ask you out on a date, together.”

“You...” Ruby’s mind raced. She couldn’t believe this was happening. She’d been having vaguely romantic thoughts about both of them for a while. But... “I can’t. You shouldn’t date me.”

“Shouldn’t?” Weiss raised an indignant eyebrow.

“I’m broken.” Ruby shrugged, defeated. “I can’t let anyone hug me, or hold me, or cuddle them, and especially not kiss them.” Just thinking about the last one made her want to go outside and start running laps around the school. “I can’t be anyone’s girlfriend.”

“You insufferably foolish, endlessly self-sacrificing, absolute... dolt!” Weiss glared angrily at Ruby, steam practically coming out of xyr nose. “If you aren’t emotionally prepared to enter a relationship we can understand that, but matters of what physical activities you are comfortable with do not define you, nor do they have any business determining what you want!”

“Weiss,” Blake nudged Weiss again, “you’re being abrasive again.”

Weiss turned xyr nose up, unrepentant. “Sometimes it is simply necessary to berate sense into someone. I think you’re treating Ruby as being more delicate than she is.”

Ruby watched Weiss uncertainly. Didn’t xe get it? “I mean, I’ve been trying really hard to be a better leader lately and I think I’ve been doing that well. But I can’t do most of the things that I want to do to express myself. I don’t even know if it’ll ever get better and I don’t think I would be able to really feel close to either of you without physical contact. I can’t function romantically.”

“Want to try anyway?” Blake questioned Weiss, who nodded xyr assent, then Ruby. “Why not try anyway? Maybe you can figure something else out with a different love language. There’s nothing to lose. Plus, you already figured out that you can touch us a little, even if we can’t touch you. We’ll just have to be careful, but you can probably hug as regularly as you want, and maybe you could work your way up to being a big spoon at some point.”

“I...” Ruby knew that Blake was right, but there was still something holding her back. She didn’t get it, but the idea of dating them right now just made her anxious. “I don’t know. I like both of you, and I want to say yes. I think I’m... scared? I might be scared, and other things. Can I give you an answer later? Probably like, days from now. I’m really confused. I guess at least now I can feel less guilty about fantasising about some things?” She smiled weakly.

“Oh, there’s no need to feel guilty regardless.” Blake smirked. “We’re total perverts anyway. Honestly, I kind of like thinking about what you might be fantasizing about regardless of if we’re dating.” She nudged Weiss, who rolled xyr eyes, but nodded.

“That’s uh...” Ruby blushed. “Maybe tone it down a little? I think I’d rather not talk about that sort of thing at all. Not for a long time.” Even if she knew that Weiss and Blake had were probably having sex now, mostly because she had been frequently warned to stay out of the room, and that fact was fantasy fuel in itself. The idea of actually doing or talking about anything even tangential was incredibly unappealing.

“Sure, sorry.” Blake nodded respectfully.

“Yeah.” Ruby awkwardly uncurled a little bit, then wrapped her wings around herself in search of comfort. “I’m sorry about avoiding you. Maybe we could try to spend some extra time together? I think it might help me be able to make a decision too.”

“I’d love to.” Weiss smiled. “As much as I’ve been assisting you with subjects, there are things I could learn from you about weapon design as well.”

“And I could read a book to you sometime? I have a few I think you’d really like.” Blake made her own offer.

“Those both sound like a lot of fun.” Ruby smiled, and gently wiped at the corners of her eyes with her shirt. She felt incredibly relieved over something she couldn’t explain, and she kept smiling widely. “I’m going to hug you two now.”

###### Yang

As expected, Yang woke up with a nasty hangover. It was worth it though. Not having to worry about everything for a while last night had been a blessing, even if it was also just a vague blur. Maybe Qrow had the right idea about that sort of thing.

Then she saw the remains of her own vomit slightly matting the ends of her hair and all consideration of doing this again vanished. Anything to protect her hair. The fact that she hadn’t been able to bring along the hair products she had gotten in Vale was already starting to bother her.

“Welcome back to the land of the living.” Someone who must have been Qrow unceremoniously shoved what smelled like coffee in front of her. “Drink.”

Yang drank the hot beverage greedily, barely noticing how hot it was in favor of seeking relief from her pounding headache and blurry vision. You’d think that aura would suppress some of the symptoms, but it’s mostly dehydration, and aura can’t drink water for you.

“Soooo,” Qrow sounded even more socially awkward than he usually did as he took a seat beside Yang. “Do you remember all of what happened last night?”

“No.” Yang squinted at Qrow, barely able to make out his shape in the painful light of morning. This must be how Blake felt about the sun.

“You told me things I’m pretty sure you never meant to reveal.” Qrow sighed. “And... I’m incredibly disappointed in you. Your parents would be too. Summer would probably mutilate you.”

“No.” Yang’s eyes snapped open. She couldn’t have. “Please tell me I didn’t tell you what I’m thinking I told you.”

“You told me you kissed Ruby without consent.” Qrow grimaced. “Among other things that I really never needed to hear my niece say about my other niece.”

“Fucking hell.” Yang sighed, too tired to even start panicking. Everything just kept coming at her relentlessly. Death and disaster, accident and a search for absolution. “Don’t let Ruby know you know. Or tell anyone. Ruby doesn’t want anyone to know.”

“I’ll consider it.” Qrow’s words were flat as he pulled out his flask and started drinking. “You know kid, you’ve officially screwed up harder than I ever have in a single instance.”

“Yeah, I know.” Yang hugged her knees to her chest and wrapped her wings around herself, partially to reduce the glaring sun that kept irritating her headache, and partially to hide herself from Qrow. “Everything hurts.”

“Physically or emotionally?”

“Both.” 

“You get used to it.” Yang tried to ignore the familiar sound of Qrow taking another drink.

An awkward silence ensued, until Yang couldn’t stand it any longer. “So, do you hate me?”

“Firecracker,” Qrow put down his flask and looked her in the eye, “there is nothing you can possibly do to make me hate you more than I already hate myself. So, no, I can’t be bothered to feel that way, especially with my family.”

“Thanks?” It wasn’t really an answer, but it was reassuring, in a way.

“You’re welcome.”

###### 

Yang was the one who ended up digging the grave, a little bit north of the camp, in between two pine trees. Raven couldn’t, given her lack of a proper foot, and of course Qrow was too distant from the deceased to receive the honors. Traditionally among bandits, the color to wear would be red, symbolizing the blood of those responsible for Vernal’s death. She didn’t have anything red, but that was fine. It didn’t go well with her hair anyway, and it wasn’t as if anything else was right with her world.

Raven’s mouth remained set in a stoic line throughout the entire process of placing the body in it’s shallow grave and burying it. She barely even moved, and Yang didn’t speak. Qrow just stood slightly farther away than his family members, expressing sympathy in his own distant fashion by briefly abstaining from his flask. No words were spoken.

As Yang patted down the last of the loose soil with a shovel, Raven finally spoke. “I’m leaving you here. Thanks for having me along.”

“Hey, you’re my mom. It’s always good to see you.” Yang tossed aside the shovel and caught her mother up in one last full bodied, winged hug.

“And Qrow,” Raven addressed her brother one last time as her semblance began to open a portal, “don’t bother looking for the Spring Maiden. I’ve personally hidden her somewhere neither you nor the Cult of Salem will find her.” She squared her shoulders almost unnoticeably, and stepped through.

“Is that true?” Qrow hitched a skeptical eyebrow Yang’s way.

“How would I know?” Yang shrugged. She agreed with Raven’s policy of not revealing Daisy’s location. “I haven’t been part of the bandit business in years.”

“But you know who it is?”

“I do. And it’s not Raven, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Qrow let out a breath, obviously relieved.

“Your opinion of her is really that low?”

“She’s still a bandit by choice, instead of circumstance. Or an ex-bandit, at least.”

“She’s also my mother, and your sister. You should put a little more faith in her.”

“Should I?” Qrow remained stoically unconvinced, his expression flat. “Good luck with your road trip, but now that I know about Spring I’ve got other work to do. I’ll catch you later, probably sometime around the Vytal Festival.”

“Bye uncle Qrow.” Yang watched as he flew away. It had been nice to see him again, even if he was a bit of an ass, and she’d accidentally told him so much more than she should have. Once he was gone from sight, she slumped against a tree. Almost instantly, her chest started to feel painfully constricted.

It was so much easier to be okay around other people. She could focus on them, ignore the way that she felt like she was suffocating if she let everything settle and weigh down on her. Just her, her thoughts, and the weight of her actions, threatening to suffocate her. Everything she’d screwed up, with Ruby, and with Vernal.

With a great exertion of willpower, she stood up. She felt the need to get back to bumblebee, and be anywhere other than here. But first there was a fire to be set in honor of the fallen.

###### Raven

“You came back!” Summer wasted no time in latching herself onto Raven with a hug, even in the very moment that she stepped out of the portal. “I’m so sorry.” She blubbered into Raven’s chest, already moved to tears.

“I... what?” Raven stood there stiffly, leaning away from the hug. This was not what she had expected to happen when she stepped through the portal. She should be berated, pushed away for what she’d done.

“It was so stupid of me to get us all a little bit drunk and seduce you.” 

Raven sighed. Of course Summer would be too selfless for her own good and think she’d made the mistake here. “Don’t be stupid. I’m the idiot who went along with it.” She gently pushed Summer away from her. “I don’t want to hear you being miserable or blaming yourself for what happened. I left because I felt like shit over what I did, not because I was angry with you. So if you try to apologize again I’ll leave, and I’ll take Daisy with me this time.”

“I still shouldn’t have done that.” Summer pouted, but seemed to at least pull herself together a lot more.

“We were all equally drunk, and equally irresponsible.” Raven scowled. “Just leave it alone for now.” 

“For now?” Summer’s feathers ruffled as she shot Raven a curious look.

“I’m still in mourning, so fucking drop it.” Raven snapped. “No, I don’t want to talk about my feelings, I’m going to dwell on them until I’ve thought back on everything I possibly can, and I’m not going to let you or Tai’s idiotic niceness catch me off gaurd again. So just give me some fucking peace.” She turned her back on Summer and glared at the floor. Why had she even come back here? Even now, her instincts screamed at her to get the hell out again, but she refused to admit to the reason why she wasn’t going to leave.

“Alright.” Summer’s voice was soft. “If you need anything just let me know.” Raven heard shuffling feet, and then a door closing behind her.

Finally alone, Raven fell to her knees with her head bowed and closed her eyes. She imagined that she was still next to Vernal’s grave and said what she would have said if Qrow hadn’t been there. “I’m so sorry.” She didn’t care for any gods, regardless of whether they verifiably exited or not. But she needed Vernal to hear her. “I never deserved you, and I know you would tell me off for saying it again if you were still here, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. How could I abandon you like that? I want to tell you that you’re all that ever mattered, but in the end our daughter was more important, and that’s why you died. I can’t even get the revenge you deserve, because it seems like it was Lionheart who was responsible for the attack, and he has too much influence to remove. And if I did Summer, and Tai, and even Qrow... they’d probably all be disappointed in me. I shouldn’t even give a damn about them at this point, they have no idea what I’ve been through, what I’m going through. But those idiots are still just as much my family as you are, even if I’ve been away a while.”

“I miss you. So much.” Raven slumped further to the floor, her face nearly pressing into the carpet beneath her as it drank up her tears. “The time we had together will never be enough, and my only regret is that I didn’t ask you to be my wife the very same day we met. Goodbye. I can only hope that whatever afterlife might exist, I’ll find you there when my time comes. And until that day, I won’t stop counting my breaths, as each one brings me nearer to my last, and to you. Until then though, don’t worry. I don’t intend to give up on the rest of my life.”

###### Ruby

Hanging out with Blake wasn’t something that normally made Ruby nervous. Blake was quiet, methodical, and she took the time to listen to Ruby whenever she felt the need to ramble on and on about something. It made her the most comfortable person on the team for Ruby to be around. But of course, even though it was explicitly not a date, they were now hanging out as two people who had both admitted that they were romantically interested in each other.

Between that and just how cute Blake was when she smiled, and how she smiled more and more the longer she had been dating Weiss, and Ruby’s heart was racing more than she meant for it to. “So what book were you thinking of?”

“That’s a surprise.” Blake shot Ruby a grin before beginning to rifle through her bookshelf.

“As long as it isn’t Ninjas of Love, I guess. I already read all of those.” Ruby hesitated for a moment before she snatched Bella from Weiss’ bed and threw herself into her own.

“How? When? I never even noticed them missing, and I don’t sleep.” Blake stopped thumbing through titles to stare at Ruby in shock.

“I didn’t steal your copies silly, I just downloaded some PDFs.” Ruby settled into her bed with Bella’s fluffy body clutched to her chest and her head propped up so that she could see Blake from where she sat. “My only complaint is that there isn’t enough literal stabbing.”

“What?” Blake blanched as she pulled out her selection of book. 

“Getting viscerally stabbed by women is hot, and definitely doesn’t have anything to do with how depressed I am.” Ruby smiled. It was in fact something that she thought about with a frequency that depended on how depressed she was.

“That’s... incredibly relatable, actually.” Blake shook her head. “I bet there’s someone out there’s whose semblance enables that sort of thing.”

“Wouldn’t that be nice?” Ruby hummed. “But what book did you pick?” 

“It’s called The Man With Two Souls. It’s about a man with two souls.” Blake smiled coyly.

“Cool.” Ruby settled down and closed her eyes, ready to listen.

Ruby relaxed when Blake started reading, happy to let the words wash over her. She started out paying close attention to the story, but quickly got distracted from what Blake was saying by the wonderful sound of her voice. The way that Blake read aloud was melodic and peaceful, and Ruby thought that she could listen to it all day long. The more she focused on it the more relaxed she felt, and the closer she got to falling asleep, though she never quite got that far.

It almost felt like Blake’s smooth voice was gently caressing her, covering her like a warm blanket. Soft, letting her thoughts drift aimlessly as a vague narrative spattered through and slipped past her ability to pay attention to it.

She was pretty sure that she never quite fell asleep, even as she felt relaxed enough to do so. Instead, she just let Blake’s voice string her along, the tone, more than the words.

At some point Blake stopped talking, and Ruby began to pull herself back into a more normal state of consciousness. She yawned heavily, feeling relaxed, but also less tired than she had in what felt like a long time.

“Are you awake now?” Blake was standing on the floor in front of Ruby’s bunk, the book she had been reading already out of sight.

“I didn’t fall asleep. I don’t think, anyway. If I’d napped I’d feel way worse than I do right now, and probably have no idea what was going on.” Ruby stretched, twisting around in her bed.

“I thought not, I just didn’t have a better word for it. Your breathing pattern seemed more meditative in nature than nocturne.” Blake stepped back to make room for Ruby to hop back down to the ground.

“Whatever I was doing, I do feel pretty good now.” Ruby yawned again as she swayed on her feet, wooziness quickly dissipating. “I really wanna give you a hug too.”

“Then go right ahead.” Blake smiled invitingly.

After a moment of deliberating on technique, Ruby wrapped her arms around Blake from behind, burying her face in the small of Blake’s back. “I really really like you and Weiss. I want to be able to date you.”

“I noticed.” Ruby could feel the vibrations of Blake’s voice travel through her body.

“I’m sorry that there’s so much wrong with me.” As the feeling of relaxation began to fade even more, Ruby realized that she couldn’t even concentrate on the people she cared about when they were in the same room, much do everything she should be able to do with them. She was awful.

“It’s okay.” Blake shuffled deeper into Ruby’s embrace. “Do you want to hear a secret?”

“Sure?”

“There’s a lot wrong with me too. I’m just better at hiding it. And there’s nothing wrong with not being okay, so try to stop apologising, and try to stop belittling yourself for it.” Blake gently moved out of the hug and turned to face Ruby with a pained smile. “Okay?”

“I do want to...” Ruby looked at the floor, ashamed. “But I do wish I could. It’s just...”

“You don’t have to explain yourself. I know breaking patterns of thinking like that is hard.”

“No, I think I want to.” Ruby started fiddling with some of her feathers nervously. “It’s something I haven’t had a chance to talk about with anyone about before.”

“Then I’m all ears.” Blake flicked her ears humorously.

“I didn't realize I was neurodivergent until I was sixteen. And then it still took a while to tell my parents and stuff. And in school everything was easy for me to just do without trying, except remembering and being motivated to do homework. You can be lying on the couch and think that there’s something else you need to do right away and just get up and do it, but I can’t, and it meant that my parents were disappointed in me because they knew I knew the material but I just forgot to or couldn’t do enough of my assignments that my grades weren’t great and I thought it was all just because I’m lazy and awful instead of being physiologically different from other people. This whole touch thing is sort of similar because it’s a thing I can’t control that’s messing with my life and I keep blaming myself but it is sort of my fault because I shouldn’t have-” Ruby stopped as she realized what had been thinking for the first time. It was all so obvious. “I never should have gotten a crush on Yang in the first place. If I hadn’t everything would still be fine and we could just be happy about discovering that we’re related or something and I could just be happy dating you and Weiss. Everything that went wrong really is my fault.”

Of course. Everything that went wrong was because of their relationship. If she had never started that relationship it would be fine. There was no one to blame for everything that had happened but herself. She almost felt like laughing at how horrible it all was, how she couldn’t even be any good as a leader with three amazing teammates doing their best to help her.

“That’s not true at all.” Blake crossed her arms sternly. “And it sounds to me like you know that you’re only thinking that because you’re used to blaming yourself for things that go wrong in your life.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Ruby fought the urge to go hide under some blankets. She still felt awful, but she wanted to believe Blake. “It’s nice to be told I’m wrong about it at least.”

“Good. Weiss is pretty good at telling people off about that kind of thing too, so don’t wait to ask us if you need it.” Blake grinned, and Ruby couldn’t help but smile back.

“Alright.” Maybe she could still work stuff out. Maybe.

###### Direct Messages Between IceQueen and scentOfARose

IceQueen: cats, dogs, neither, or both?

scentOfARose: cats, why?

IceQueen: dragons or unicorns?

scentOfARose: dragons

scentOfARose: but why are you asking?

IceQueen: there is no need for you to know, simply go along with it

IceQueen: lions or tigers?

scentOfARose: lions

IceQueen: beowolves or ursa

scentOfARose: beowolves

IceQueen: that will suffice. Interesting choices

scentOfARose: what did I choose!!

IceQueen: you shall see

scentOfARose: I really hope you aren’t pulling a Gozer on me because I will die before I hurt a twenty story tall cat, even if that cat is just a construct made by a god that’s trying to kill me

IceQueen: I choose to interpret that as a compliment


	34. Warming Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welp that took a while. I don't really know why, time is weird. Definitely not because I spent more than a hundred hours playing Yakuza and Skyrim over the last two weeks. It was also a bit of a tricky chapter for me to write.
> 
> Fun fact, I'm a nuclear engineering student and can confirm that this is scientifically accurate.

The information gleaned by investigating the traffic of goods in and out of the Mistral Necromancer’s Guild, alongside their patronage, yields a confirmation of the results brought forth by past investigations. They are a functionally and professedly neutral, amoral organization, which provides its services to anyone willing to pay for them, regardless of legal or moral objections. This clientele ultimately has a tendency to consist of criminals, given that getting in contact with the guild requires a very specific series of underground connections and a significant amount of funding. 

However, in my investigations I have found individuals which we can identify as lacking the funds to pay for the services they have acquired from the Guild. I suspect that the Guild is willing to trade in information as well as in money, though they do not sell any of the information they obtain. I believe that the information they seek is solely understanding of the arcane and supernatural which is used in their profession, and thus is kept as a trade secret once obtained.

From that information, the motive of their operation appears to be the hoarding of knowledge, something that may well explain their extensive secrecy and reclusive nature. However, it does not explain how they have apparently never been infiltrated by any organization of any kind. The secret must likely lie in some kind of unknown occult method of screening for the intentions of any individuals they choose to contact as recruits.

Of the five individuals the Huntsmans’ Association has identified as joining the Guild over the last forty years, there is no apparent connection or consistent requisite skills or knowledge for a recruit. They were all very intelligent and skilled in their respective fields, but not all of them were even aware of the existence of the supernatural world before being recruited. This suggests that they may recruit individuals with skills outside of supernatural expertise, likely in pursuit of self-sufficiency to better maintain their secrecy and avoid bringing in untrustworthy outside contractors. There is no evidence as to whether this recruitment was consensual or not in any of the five known cases.

**-Reginald Barclay, final report preceding disappearance, presumed dead**

The average warhammer has a mass of approximately 1,360 grams, and can easily be swung at a velocity of 5 m/s by a trained and aura enhanced individual. Therefore, the amount of kinetic energy behind a single swing of a heavy weapon is around 34,000 Joules. Any developed aura is capable of protecting against at least two direct hits from these swings.

One common means of measuring radiation exposure is the Gray(Gy), defined as one Joule per Kilogram of the body mass of the subject being exposed. 3.4 Gys of exposure to specific parts of the body are required before adverse effects of acute radiation poisoning are typically detected. If the aura has a typical energy capacity exceeding 68,000 J, it is more than capable of absorbing and protecting against the energy output of gamma and beta radiation that would normally be unacceptable for human exposure, in comparatively significant amounts. Any exposure short of a severe meltdown is therefore perfectly safe, so long as the individual keeps their aura up. 

Because aura is capable of selective defence, that is, only absorbing the energy of the radiation that would otherwise interact with our bodies while allowing that which would ordinarily pass through to pass through, there is no need to abandon traditional exposure calculations for the safety of aura unlocked individuals and instead calculate the energy of all radiation passing through their body.

**-Dr. Carlos Castano, head of the Nuclear Engineering Department at the Vale University of Science and Technology, excerpt from introductory pamphlet to radiation safety**

###### Yang

Yang was on the edge. The only thing that was enough to keep her getting up every day and keep her living and breathing was the small part of her brain that kept telling her she needed to move, move, move. The motion soothed her. Something about the act of running, flying, churning up the dirt roads of Anima’s backwater western towns and settlements from atop Bumblebee was enough to let her keep going for another day.

As she rode, she took in the sights. Anima was a welcome distraction from herself, and it was nice to be back on her home continent, seeing the familiar patterns of landscape. Swamps, hills, small, vulnerable towns. Towns desperate enough for help that they were willing to disregard Hunters’ Association protocol and give her enough under the table jobs to fund her little trip. They got services they desperately needed at a discount, she got funds without the hassle of a partner or taxes to pay, everybody won. She even drove away the occasional small party of bandits, though that was with mediocre backup from townspeople. Numbers could count for a lot, but no fight was even when it came down to petty bandits against a local militia backed by the daughter of the woman who had been the most feared bandit on the continent, until recently. She was pretty sure Raven was retired, anyway. There didn’t seem to be a reason for her to be a bandit anymore.

A small town appeared on the horizon, no more than a few houses, a dust station, a minimal collection of local shops, and a small motel. It was only late afternoon, so Yang wouldn’t bother staying the night, but it would be a good idea to top off Bumblebee’s fuel. She slowed down to the speed limit as she neared the town, and pulled up to the dust station. Most vehicles ran on fire dust, with just a hint of processed lightning dust added in for the sake of ignition, as well as an inert substance that was burned along with the dust for the sake of stability. It was volatile, but efficient, and modern safety requirements were plenty stringent enough that it was only ever human error that got people killed in dust explosions.

She pulled up to the pump and connected the dust injector to the fuel tank, and waited.

It was a surprise when her scroll rang. She hadn’t expected to get a call anytime soon. It didn’t feel like she deserved to be able to talk to her friends, and she certainly didn’t intend to force her presence on them by being the one to call first. She fumbled with her scroll, and only managed to answer it at the last possible moment and bring it up to her ear, not bothering to look at the caller ID. There was only one person it could be.

“Hey Blake. What’s up?”

“Well, I wasn’t aware that I had changed my name to Blake. I don’t believe that I’m quite that thoroughly attached to her hip.” Weiss’ voice took Yang by surprise.

“Oh, sorry Weiss. I never really expected you to call me.” Yang paused awkwardly. “Why did you call, anyway?”

“Would you believe me if I told you that I missed the sound of your voice?”

“No, not for a moment.”

“Well it’s the truth.”

“What?” Yang nearly dropped the dust pump as she put it back in it’s holster. Weiss chuckled.

“There’s a lot going on here. I’m sure Blake will call you soon.” Weiss abruptly changed the subject. “Though I have unfortunately neglected to garner the permission of involved parties to tell you about the most personally important events.”

“Sounds to me like you’ve lost your edge, if you’re going around forgetting things.”

“It comes with various benefits, such as being more honest with myself.” It almost sounded like xe was happy. “Would you like to know about how Ruby is doing?”

Yang’s hands shook as she wheeled Bumblebee out of the automotive dust pumping station. “Yeah. That would be...” she swallowed a lump in her throat. “Is she feeling better,” _now that I’m gone?_

“She’s certainly a fair bit less stressed, for a few different reasons. She’s begun training with her chainsaw hand, and some shotgun-nunchucks that she built. There is also a degree of contact to which she has managed to open herself up, that being hugging others without being touched herself. In brief, time is passing, and things are changing for the better.”

“Good. That’s good to hear.” Yang took a deep breath. She could smell Anima’s swamps on the light wind as it ruffled her feathers. “Thanks. For calling me. I miss you, all of you, and I really needed to hear a friendly voice again. Would you tell Blake that for me? Only the part about missing everyone.”

“I will, but as I said, my reasons are purely selfish. There is no reason to thank me.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll do it anyway, cause fuck you.” Yang almost laughed, but it was muffled beneath the heavy weight in her heart. “Thank you, Weiss.”

Weiss scoffed, then clicked xyr tongue. “Anyway, how are you doing?”

“Honestly, I’m not even sure I can describe it. Just, lost. I buried mom the other day, which is closure, I guess? So I’m supposed to feel better eventually? I really have no idea how any of this works.” Yang sighed. 

“I’m afraid I have nothing meaningful to say about that, beyond extending a reminder that you are both free and welcome to call if you feel the desire to speak again.” 

“Yeah, I didn’t really think you would. Thanks for the offer, though. I should hit the road again soon.”

“Any parting words?”

“Well, before you go.” Yang pursed her lips. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer to this question, but that was probably just her own self-doubt talking. “Why did you say that you missed the sound of my voice?”

“Aside from it being the truth...” Weiss hesitated briefly before continuing. “I suppose you have grown on me, since we decided to give one another a chance. You might say that I’ve grown rather attached to you. Has that not been apparent?”

“I guess I just didn’t notice that we started getting along at some point.” 

“A shame. I suppose that you’ll be in for quite the surprise when you return from your journey, or perhaps sometime after that, at least.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You will see when the time comes. Goodbye, Yang.” Weiss hung up, leaving Yang a little bit less lost and confused than she had been before. It was comforting, just to talk to xyr again.

###### Weiss

“Alright, you may open your eyes.” Weiss stepped back from Ruby’s bed, satisfied with xyr work.

Ruby stared at Weiss for a moment, then began looking around the dorm. “I don’t see it. What’s different?”

“Your bed, you dolt. It’s on your bed.” Weiss rolled xyr eyes. Xe should have known that xe would have to spell it out for Ruby. Why was xe attracted to her again?

“Oh! Ohhhhh. Ooooooo.” Ruby’s expression quickly flashed through surprise, comprehension, and delighted excitement. She turned to Weiss with a smile. “Ohmygoshthat’samazingthankyousomuch!” Ah yes, that’s why. That smile. That beautiful, slightly crooked smile.

“Well, I suppose I can infer what you just said well enough. You’re welcome.” Weiss returned Ruby’s infectious grin. “Now go on.”

Without needing any further encouragement, Ruby leapt into her bed, wrapping her arms around as many of the numerous plushes with which Weiss had stocked it as she could. Cat, dragon, lion, beowolf, just as she had selected. An action proceeded that could almost be described as frolicking. “How did you even know?”

“Blake told me that you were quite fond of Bella, and hypothesized that you may have a particular interest in that general category of item. Something about being able to hear everything we say when we mutter under our breath and in our sleep whether she wants to or not.” Weiss smirked. It would have been a slightly disturbing thing to learn, if xe didn’t trust Blake implicitly at this point. 

As it was, it was going to be fun to have such a skilled informant on xyr side. Even if it was unrealistic, xe liked to fantasize about how much Blake could do if she were to take up industrial espionage. Though xe did distantly hope that Blake wasn’t able to guess at the contents of xyr dreams too accurately, mostly out of embarrassment.

“Neat.” Ruby could be seen excitedly wiggling her toes, moving the top of one of the taller plushies, and not much else. Weiss’ position standing on the floor lacked visibility of the girl she was courting. The only disadvantage of being short. “You really didn’t have to do something like this though.”

“Of course I didn’t have to, I simply like giving gifts. As a way of showing my affection when other methods escape me, I suppose.” Weiss smiled.

“Well, thanks. I don’t think I could have ever actually done something like this for myself.”

“They aren’t that expensive. Don’t you make a reasonable amount from working in the forge?”

“Yeah, but all of that ends up getting spent on weapon and arm parts, dust, cookies from that one really nice bakery, and video games. And I actually sort of felt embarrassed about wanting plushies. I guess I sort of needed an excuse for why it would be okay to have them, because infantilizing autism and/or trans women is sort of a thing that some people do and I just... I was nervous about doing something that might fit into that stereotype even though I know y’all aren’t like that.” Ruby flailed about happily in her bed. “So, yeah, thanks. They'll be great for cuddling too.”

“You’re welcome.” Weiss watched contentedly as Ruby acquainted herself with her new companions. “So, any ruminations on our offer of yet?”

“Not really. I try not to think about it too much, when I can help it. That kind of thing usually tends to just come to me out of nowhere, no I’d rather not try to force it.” Ruby sighed. “There is something unrelated I’ve been wondering about though.”

“What might that be?”

“What’s it like to remember stuff?”

“What qualifies as stuff, exactly?”

“Like, things that happened to you. Memories of events in your life. Mostly stuff that involves other people.” 

Weiss tried to think back on growing up. The countless socialite events and exclusive concerts all just blended together into a blur of misery. Beyond that, there were only xyr studies. The more xe concentrated, and tried to recall a specific conversation with Winter, or even xyr mother, the less xe seemed to remember. “I suppose that I don’t really remember much at all.”

“You too huh?” Ruby peeked over the edge of her bunk to look at Weiss. She looked tired.

“Me too?”

“Yeah. Being depressed for a long time messes with your long term memory. It’s a whole brain thing. Of course, I’ve also got ADHD, so my short term memory is also pretty shot.” Ruby smiled sadly. “It’s fun.”

“I suppose it is a good thing that I remember as little of the past as I can.” Weiss mused. “At least, the past from before Beacon. Though I don’t wish to forget Winter.”

“Oof.” Ruby winced sympathetically. “Mood. It’s actually already sort of hard for me to remember what it was like when I was dating Yang, aside from being happy.”

“Is that a good thing?” Weiss wondered whether Ruby had meant to steer the conversation in this direction or if it was in fact an unintended realization on the approach.

“I dunno. I do miss it.” Ruby grabbed a beowolf plush and hugged it to her chest, though she kept looking in Weiss’ direction. “I miss... feeling safe around her. And in general. And what things used to be like before she found out that we’re biological half sisters.”

“What about her?” 

“I feel mean. I mean her mom died. That’s way worse than my whole deal.”

“But...?”

“I guess I don’t actually miss her. Just the idea of her that’s impossible now.” Ruby blinked. “Oh. Wow. Good job with the leading questions. You’re like a therapist but better because I also have a crush on you. Or is that worse?”

“That’s a completely inaccurate simile, and I’m pretty sure that a leading question is meant to have malicious intent behind it. So feel free to pursue your crush at any pace you choose.” Weiss gave Ruby what xe thought might be a seductive wink.

“Is there something in your eye?”

“No. Never mind, it was nothing.” Weiss hastily cleared xyr throat. “Though I am glad to be able to help, and always will be.”

“That’s really sweet.” Ruby grinned playfully. “Come over here, so that I can reach you.”

“Whatever for?” Weiss complied, and stood right next to Ruby’s bed, xyr head a few inches below Ruby’s own.

Ruby’s fleshy right hand reached around and gently booped Weiss’ nose. “Boop.”

Weiss blinked. That was a new experience. “Am I supposed to do something?”

“Nope, I just wanted to do that.” Ruby giggled a little bit. “Although I’m surprised you didn’t even flinch.

“I wasn’t allowed to flinch.” Weiss made the remark almost casually, only to slam xyr mouth shut a moment later. 

“Ummm.” Ruby stared at Weiss, concerned. “That sounds like a really bad thing.”

“Yes.” Weiss didn’t say anything else, and Ruby didn’t ask. “Anyway, I expect you to form an outline for the essay Professor Oobleck assigned today before dinner.”

“Oh, okay.” Ruby didn’t protest and try to excuse procrastination or claim that outlines didn’t help her like she usually did. She just pulled out her scroll and could be seen getting to work.

###### Ruby

“Stop, stop.” Shiroe scowled as he ended the fight, the quarterstaff that seemed to be his preferred dueling weapon vanishing back into its constituent aura. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“Fighting?” Ruby put away her weapons and shrugged. “You should be more specific.”

“Your attitude towards combat has completely changed since we began training.” Shiroe tapped his foot impatiently against the ground. “You were ferocious at first, unrestrainedly creative, and fighting like your life depended on it. Now, you’re obviously not trying as hard as you were then. Your fighting is restrained, less creative. So, what are you doing?”

“I just don’t like fighting people.” Ruby huffed.

“No, that’s obviously not all that’s going on here.” Shiroe’s glasses gleamed as they reflected the light of the training room. “You started out very well, then grew less enthusiastic as you became more confident and knowledgeable. Why?”

“Does it really matter? I’m still getting pretty good at this.” Ruby shrugged, trying to stay nonchalant. She did not want to have this conversation.

“Yes.” Shiroe stared at her, his expression stony. “And you know it does. I’m shocked Professor Goodwitch hasn’t given you the shit you deserve yet, but I suppose she didn’t see you learning a new weapon from scratch.” 

“Ughhh.” Ruby groaned. “Come on dude.”

“Tell me why. I won’t train you if you don’t want to be trained.”

“I just... when I started out with these babies I had no idea what I was doing so I just did whatever seemed like a good idea, because I figured I wouldn’t win anyway. I do the same thing when I spar with Pyrrha.” Ruby reluctantly admitted. “I know I shouldn’t do that, but I just like people too much to put my heart into fighting them and winning.”

“Alright then.” Shiroe casually drew his weapon once again. “If you can’t manage to motivate yourself properly when you spar, I’ll just have to do my best to kill you.” He began to advance.

“Wait, what?” Ruby barely drew Boomstick in time to block Shiroe’s overhead strike with its barrels. “What are you doing?” She hastily switched her hand back to a chainsaw, just in time to catch a quick follow up blow.

“Trying to kill you, obviously.” Shiroe kept attacking, pushing Ruby back with a flurry of fast, aggressive blows. “I hope I fail. You _are_ pretty good at this, especially for a freshman.”

“You’re crazy!” Ruby burst into petals and blew past him to the door of the training room. She tried to open the door, but it was locked from the outside. Coco was waving innocently to her through the small window in the door. Coco mouthed a word that might have been duck, so Ruby did, barely avoiding a swipe of the quarterstaff. 

“Come on, hit me back!” Shiroe shouted as he charged towards her again.

“Stop shouting at me!” Ruby shouted back. She kept blocking and dodging attacks, but Shiroe was overwhelming her. He wasn’t actually trying to kill her, right? Fine, she’d just fight back and spar some more.

They exchanged blows, neither of them finding a significant advantage over the other. Shiroe was fast enough to parry all most of Ruby’s attempts to slip past his guard, and Ruby’s dual wielding allowed her to effectively deflect Shiroe’s attacks from multiple directions. By a small margin, Ruby ended up falling under fifteen percent of her aura first, and a buzzer sounded to end the round. 

Just as Ruby was about to set aside her weapons and focus on developing more muscle memory while her aura recharged, she caught a flash of motion out of the corner of her eye, and barely brought up the barrel of Boomstick to hold back Shiroe’s quarterstaff once again. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to kill you, obviously. Did I not say so?” Shiroe grinned maniacally, and pressed harder, overpowering Ruby’s block and knocking her onto her feet. Her aura was dangerously low.

“I thought you were just messing with me!” Ruby frantically jerked aside his quarterstaff by briefly catching it in Ashley’s teeth, then fired a shotgun blast behind her to return to her feet in a burst of motion. She had to break Shiroe’s aura, that would disarm him. Hopefully before he broke hers, though it would probably take a lot of work to beat her to death with a staff, unless he knew a bunch about what vital points to hit or something.

“I’m always serious.” Shiroe whirled his staff about behind his back and swung at Ruby’s other side, one-handed.

Fuck. She needed to _win_. “Fine!” Ruby released Boomstick’s latch, and the barrels uncoupled into a pair of nunchucks connected by the chain hidden in the stock as blades telescoped out of the ends. She wrapped the chain around Shiroe’s quarterstaff and tore it out of his hand. It dissipated quickly as he lost contact with it, but she used the brief moment in which he was disarmed and jerked closer to her to shove Ashley into his exposed belly. 

The hardlight chainsaw teeth scraped against Shiroe’s aura as she revved the motor, tearing into his flickering aura. The moment before his aura was down to zero, she pulled it back and kicked him away as hard as she could, shoving her foot into his chest. He landed with a thud a few feet away as his aura broke completely.

There was a moment of silence and stillness before Shiroe began to laugh. “Now that’s more like it! You finally stopped flinching away from landing the big hits.” He stopped for a moment to wheeze and cough, then went back to laughing.

“Are you okay?” Ruby realized that she was breathing quickly. Inexplicably, she felt... good. Tired, but in a way that somehow wasn’t miserable. Like she did after working out by herself. She’d won.

“As if a little kick could get me down.” Shiroe grinned. “That was a good warm-up.”

“Warmup?” Ruby’s eyes widened.

“Yeah, now I can finally take off the training wheels. About damn time. From now on, you’re going to fight like that every time you spar with me or anyone else, and whenever you end up fighting people in the real world again. And if you don’t, you’ll die.” 

“What?”

“You might not want to go all out against your fellow students, but you don’t have that luxury. Your muscle memory, your combat instincts, they can’t tell the difference between friendly sparring partners and the people and Grimm that are going to kill you, so you fight for your life every damn time in here, or you die out there. Understood?” Even though he was laying on his back on a padded floor, Shiroe radiated authority.

“Yeah. That makes sense.” Ruby sighed. It had been kind of fun to let loose in the moment, but now that she was done she just felt terrible about it. “I think I can get into that headspace again without you messing with me, even if I’d really rather not.”

“Try to find a more positive way of thinking of it when it comes to friendly fights. Should let you feel better about yourself.”

“A more positive way of thinking of it?”

“As something more than just a fight. You aren’t a very confrontational person anyway, so treating it all like a dance or whatever other kind of activity you like might make it easier on you.”

Ruby sighed as she sat down next to Shiroe. “Are we just going to wait until our auras recharge and go at it again?”

“Yes. I want you to take time to think about how you can get into that state of mind more easily and consistently in the time that takes.”

“Right.” Ruby relaxed on the floor as well. Thinking of fighting as something positive. The instruction seemed weird. All she’d ever contemplated fighting growing up was Grimm, and those fights she did enjoy. It was satisfying to cleave monster after monster in half with Crescent Rose, and she did feel some bloodlust about it, even if Grimm don’t have blood. It was something to be proud of doing, reducing the number of Grimm in the world, no matter the circumstance.

And then there was the other side of a huntress’ work. Reducing the number of people in the world. She had no intention of doing that, ever. Not if she could help it. Obviously, it happened. It could be necessary some day, for the sake of saving one or more innocent people. But man did she hope she didn’t have to. Fighting didn’t necessarily involve that though, and most people would just surrender when their aura broke.

Shiroe was probably right then, that she needed to think of fighting people as something other than hurting them. What else could it be though?

_To me, fighting between people is just another form of communication. I always throw myself in all the way and I can be passionate and a little bit destructive, and it’s really freeing. Trading blows with someone is kinda like having a verbal argument, but you're speaking directly to each other’s hearts._

Yang had said that, what felt like a lifetime ago. Before they were even dating, when they’d visited Patch for a weekend. It was a bittersweet memory. Maybe she was right, though. There had been plenty of times that Yang had fought someone to get a point across, and it seemed to work for her. Weiss had controlled herself better and Yang had been a little bit less angry after their fight, and Cardin had backed off when Yang kicked all of team CRDL’s asses.

Maybe Ruby could learn to deal with it too. Maybe fighting well could give her a better chance to capture people when she did end up fighting them, if it meant that she would have more aura in reserve once their aura was broken and thus more time to restrain them safely. And if that meant she needed to fight more seriously right now, she could stand to let herself loose. There were instructors and all sorts of safety mechanisms here, after all. It was a good environment for learning.

She just hoped that the bloodlust she sometimes had for the Grimm wouldn’t turn out to carry over to people.


	35. The Sun and Moon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dang these chapters are a bit tough to write lately. Mostly I really want to get on to the final exam arcs, which are going to be crazy exciting, but of course I can't rush these parts, they're very important.

Security clearance level 1 is available to all licensed graduates of any huntsman’s academy, or any hunter who has earned their license through field examination. It provides access to all important information related to their job, including other hunters, and types of Grimm and Grimm reconnaissance reports.

Clearance level 2 is eventually earned by about fifteen percent of total hunters. It provides access to the general database of information on {the supernatural}2. Most volatile information is still restricted for the protection of the public.

Clearance level 3 is generally given to especially skilled hunters, who have proven to be willing and capable of great sacrifice for the protection of the four kingdoms. Professors at academies always have at least level three security clearance access.

Level 4 is heavily restricted access. Most level four restricted information is only available to security operations personnel, and even then only on a need to know basis.

Level 5 is a clearance level given exclusively to the four headmasters of the academies and a select few individuals trusted by those headmasters. It contains only the most dangerous of secrets, and information on various {existential}3 threats to all of Remnant.

**-Huntsman’s Association Official Introductory Pamphlet for Non-Commissioned Hunters**

###### Yang

It took a few more days for Blake to actually call. Yang wasn’t really sure how many, they all just blended together, even though she was attached to the schedule of a five day school week as she wandered. Classes were a good distraction, and the harder she worked to do well in them the less time she had for her mind to wander.

“Hey.” Yang breaked into the receiver in her scroll. She didn’t want Blake to have to see the dark bags under her eyes, so she’d kept it audio only.

“Hey.” Blake responded, her voice just as airy as Yang’s. “You know, I haven’t made a call in a long time. It’s weird that I’m hearing your voice without being able to smell you. Messes with my vampire instincts.”

“Excuse you, I do not smell.” Yang slipped back into their usual playful banter as if they weren’t even on different continents.

“You do though. You smell like lavender and sunlight. It’s nice. I may have actually sort of rolled around in your bed a little bit when no else was around. More than once.” Blake laughed, mostly at herself, only for her tone to turn somber again. “I miss you.”

“Yeah, I miss you too.” Yang swallowed the lump in her throat.

“How long has it even been since the last time we got separated like this? As long as we’ve been friends?” Blake sighed.

“Pretty much.” Yang nodded, even though Blake couldn’t see her. “I wish I could just come back.”

“Don’t worry about it. We can still talk like this, and I’ve plenty of support here too. Weiss, Ruby, Nora, Ren, even Pyrrha.”

“But not Jaune?”

“Jaune is an idiot and Weiss would probably try to strangle him if the three of us ended up in the same room with no supervision.” They laughed together. Ruby was the only one on the team who was good friends with Jaune. Still, he was actually a pretty decent guy.

“Is it bad that I’m even starting to miss him then?” 

“Probably, yeah.”

“Great, thanks, that’s really reassuring.” Yang rolled her eyes, even as she smiled.

“Good. Glad to help.” Blake’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

“I’m just gonna say it again real quick. I really, really, missed you.” Yang shook her head. It had been a long time since Blake hadn’t been a regular part of her life. It felt weird, unnatural even.

“Serves you right, after you went and left us all to our own devices with only a day's warning.” Blake sighed. “Now I’ve got a traumatized leader to look after, and you’re out there galavanting around, doing who knows what. Honestly, I’d be pretty angry with you right now if I couldn’t tell that you were right about needing to give Ruby space. Actually, fuck that, I’m angry anyway, even though this is probably the best thing for both of you.”

“That’s fair.” Yang nodded again. Blake probably wasn’t even as angry at her as she was at herself, so it didn’t sting that much to know. “I’m sorry I fucked up so much I abandoned everyone. Hells, uncle Qrow even said I’d screwed up worse than he ever had, and he’s the one who had to amputate Ruby’s arm.” 

“Pretty bad then, huh? Just... Could you promise me? That whatever you did wasn’t something he would have done.”

“I... don’t know that I can promise that.” Yang hung her head. “I’m... I don’t know.”

“Yang, are you being too hard on yourself right now?” It was a shock that Blake’s voice was still warm.

“How would I even know? You should be harder on me.”

“No, I trust you. Whatever you did, you’re doing everything you can to be better. That’s all you.” Blake hummed gently into the receiver. “I think things are going to work out, in the end. I’ve got a feeling.”

“You’re... I wish you were here.” Yang wiped her eyes. She was crying, as quietly as she could. “I don’t like being alone.”

“I am here, okay? Whenever you need me. And you’re not alone, you never will be. You’ve got me, and Raven, and Weiss, and... and everyone.”

Yang didn’t say anything, she just listened to the silence, sure that Blake was still there on the other end. “Would you stay here for a little bit?”

“Of course.”

###### Blake

“Weiss.” Blake pulled Weiss into a standing hug the moment xe was back from dinner. “Hey.” She did her best to soothe the ache in her chest with the hug.

“Hey.” Weiss lovingly kissed Blake’s collarbone. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m definitely in love with Yang.” Blake admitted with a sigh. And now she had to let Yang be alone, and in pain.

“I see. Come here.” Weiss pulled both of them into xyr bed, where Blake’s head ended up in xyr lap. Xe scratched her scalp, catching just the right spot and making Blake’s ears wriggle.

“You’ve gotten really good at that.” Blake closed her eyes.

“Well, someone was very insistent about teaching me.” Weiss’ moved xyr fingers to trail along the insides of Blake’s ears and rub them with just the right amount of pressure.

“Ohhhh.” Blake did her best to relax, focus on the person who was here, right now.

Ruby walked into the room in the middle of Blake moaning a little. “Why are you giving Blake oo-mox?”

“What-” Blake sat up as quickly as she could, not because she cared about Ruby seeing the two of them like that, but because of what Ruby had said. “Are you comparing me to a Ferengi?” Her ears flattened against her head indignantly.

“I mean, ear rubs are ear rubs.” Ruby shrugged with her arms and wings at the same time. Her cheeks dimpled slightly as she grinned.

“Well, yes, but that’s not the issue here.” Blake wagged her finger at Ruby. “It’s a matter of dignity. You can’t compare me to a fictional race that’s literally a caricature of capitalist greed when I’m a flaming anticapitalist. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“It doesn’t have to be that literal.” Ruby rolled her eyes. “Although I guess it is a pretty bad metaphor. You’re way cuter than any Ferengi.”

Blake facepalmed. “That’s such a low bar, but I guess I could say the same about you.”

“Thanks?” Ruby’s face scrunched up in confusion.

“Did you have _any_ intention of getting on with it at some point?” Weiss got up from the bed, but not before encouragingly elbowing Blake’s side.

“Getting on with what?” Blake looked between Weiss and Ruby, oblivious.

“Well...” Ruby started fiddling about, not even looking in their general direction anymore. “I want to date you two. I’ve sort of let go of Yang, some. Enough that I feel good about trying. As long as you understand that even if I want to be able to do physical stuff with ease again, I might not end up being able to. I don't know.” 

"That's understandable, we like you for you, regardless of that." Weiss smiled reassuringly. "So let's do it."

“Yeah, what xe said.” Blake was pretty sure that her smile was weaker than it should have been. 

“Are you okay?” Ruby peered curiously at Blake.

“Just sort of worried, I guess. And maybe yearning a little bit.” Blake took a deep breath in through her nose, deliberately taking in Ruby’s comforting scent. Chocolate and strawberries. She turned to Weiss, realizing something. “We should probably tell her about Yang.”

“Oh, yes. That would be important information.” Weiss nodded in agreement and turned to Ruby. “You should know that we both have feelings for Yang as well.”

“That’s...” Ruby winced a little. “That’s sort of awkward. But don’t worry about it! She’s not here right now anyway, so it won’t really be important for a while.” She was talking more to herself than to anyone else by the end of her statement.

“We just want you to know that it’s fine if you wouldn’t be comfortable adding her to the polycule in the future, ever, even as a metamor. It doesn’t have to happen, or even matter all that much.” Blake chimed in with the best explanation she had. It would probably suck not to actually approach Yang about her feelings, but the angst would be equal with Ruby, so in a way it didn’t make much of a difference. Still, she wondered if the four of them weren’t somehow fated to all end up together. She had drawn the lovers for all of them during her reading with Ruby. Maybe it would be a good idea to take another look tonight.

“Okay, yeah, that’s fine. I really don’t know yet though. I mean, Yang is still Yang, and I do like her, she’s a great person. Just... y’know.” Ruby shrugged in a way that conveyed her continuing internal conflict. “Why though?” 

“Why what?”

“Why would you choose me over her?” Ruby’s expression seemed almost blank for some reason, though Blake thought that it must be a statement born of self-deprecation.

“No, that’s not really it. You and Yang, you’re equal to me, but you’re here right now, and Yang isn’t.” Blake grinned. “She always was a bit flighty.”

That got a good chuckle out of Ruby, and a groan of feigned displeasure from Weiss. “So you’ve taken it upon yourself to be our supplementary pun-based live-in torture device?”

“Yeah, I guess I have. What are you going to do about it?” Blake winked at Weiss.

“I’ll...” Weiss glared at Blake. “I’ll enact a nefarious revenge.” Xe suddenly reached forward and booped Blake’s nose, only to miss as Blake recoiled.

“Bad context to touch, bad context.” Blake squeezed her eyes shut as a wave of fear rolled over her. Having someone go for her face as a form of “revenge” did not come across as playful, even if she knew that was the intent. She drummed her fingers against the bed, and tried to remind herself where she was. After a long, stressful moment, she managed to relax her shoulders and forcibly release the tension in her body with a fast exhale. 

“I’m so sorry, I would have reacted the same way to that I really should have known better.” Blake could sense Weiss hovering anxiously over her, so she caught one of xyr hands in her own.

“I’m good, I’m good.” Blake opened her eyes to look at Weiss. “Just spooked me a little, that’s all.” She ran her thumb along the inside of Weiss’ palm reassuringly.

“Geez,” Ruby sighed, “we’re all traumatized, huh?” 

“Trauma gang, trauma gang.” Blake clapped softly to emphasize each syllable. “When you and your girlfriends all have similar trauma.” 

“Yeet.” Ruby low fived Weiss’ unguarded hand as it dangled by xyr side.

Weiss sighed in a way that meant xe was incredibly disappointed. “I must be mad.”

“No more than the rest of us snowflake.” Blake brought Weiss’ soft hand to her lips and kissed xyr knuckle.

“As you said previously, that is such a low bar.”

“Ooo, that’s a really good idea, give me your hands so we can celebrate officially dating.” Ruby made a come hither gesture with each of her hands until Weiss and Blake each took one of them. Her slightly calloused fingers ran delicately across their hands, one cool metal, the other warm flesh, and Blake noticed a contented smile on her face. She brought their hands to her lips in turn, kissing four knuckles on each hand. “Girlfriends.”

###### Weiss

The smell of moderately tolerable food surrounded Weiss at dinner, just as it did at xyr other meals. Xe ended up being subtly squeezed between Blake and Ruby, just close enough that their thighs were all pressed together, but far apart that it wasn’t particularly obvious what was going on between them.

Or it might not have been, if it wasn’t for the fact that Ruby spent nearly the entire time that it took for them to fetch their food staring between xyr and Blake in a delighted haze.

“Sooooooo,” Nora started interrogating Ruby the moment all seven of them were seated, “what’s got you so cheery?”

When Ruby didn’t respond with words, Weiss looked up from xyr spaghetti to see that she was enthusiastically pointing to xyr and Blake with nearly her entire upper body.

“Huh?” Nora immediately proceeded to not understand.

“We’re dating.” Weiss gestured between the three of them in a much more subdued fashion. Xe did xyr best to pretend not to enjoy Ruby’s enthusiasm.

“Huh?” Jaune echoed. “But I thought you and Blake...?”

“Yes, all three of of us, obviously.” Weiss rolled xyr eyes. Subpar food always made xyr irritable.

“That’s a thing?” Nora’s eyes widened as much as they did when she got Professor Mulberry’s permission to test out a new dust mixture in her grenades.

“Cool.” Jaune just smiled the way he did when he had no idea what was going on but was happy to go along with it anyway.

Ruby immediately switched into sign language and conversed intensely with Nora, only briefly pausing to eat. Weiss was curious, but let them speak in peace for as long as they continued.

“Congratulations.” Ren nodded approvingly in their direction.

“Oh.” Pyrrha’s gaze flicked contemplatively between Jaune, Nora, and Ren, then she shook her head. “Huh.”

“Huh indeed.” Weiss wondered if the obvious romantic tension between those four idiots was actually going to resolve anytime soon. Hopefully being friends with a small polycule would speed up the process.

“Personally, I’m surprised Ruby didn’t even notice how much we liked her from the start.” Blake twiddled two potato wedges as she spoke, then turned to Ruby with a smirk. “Don’t you know that I consider feeding to be inherently romantic at this point?”

Ruby’s eyes widened, and she froze in the middle of shoving food into her mouth. “That’s uhh... good. It is really intimate. You should do it again soonish.”

“Honestly, I’m sort of overfed these days so I’m not sure if I could, but I’ll try, if you insist.” Blake’s voice was like velvet, and Weiss bit her lip. Xe wanted to watch Blake drink Ruby’s blood.

“Yes.” Ruby squeaked.

Jaune coughed gently. “Anyway, how are you doing with your new weapons?”

“They’re very sweet babies, and I’m actually really getting good with them.” Ruby seemed to sit up a little bit straighter, and her eyes shone with excitement. “Shiroe is a really scary teacher, but he’s actually cool. I need to get in a little more practice with Crescent Rose to keep up though, since I’ve been improving my overall combat thought process a lot too. And I won a bet with Coco too, so now she’s going to have to design my dress for the Ball next semester.”

“Oh, now that will be interesting.” Weiss wondered what sort of excellent conception Coco might make. “Though, I am curious, was the deal that she would design a dress, or an outfit?”

“What’s that matter?”

“Humor me.”

“I guess I said outfit when I came up with her end of the bet.” Ruby frowned.

“Interesting.” Weiss wondered if Ruby would end up in a suit. That would be an incredible sight, though xe didn’t actually know if she would be okay with a suit.

“Well that’s great, now I’m worried about it.” Ruby sighed. “Although I guess in a good way. Both concerned and excited.”

“That is most likely appropriate. She did an excellent job with my suits, but can certainly be very eccentric.”

“Sounds like a fun time.” Blake grinned. “Maybe I should wear a suit to the Ball.”

“It is rather far off, but there’s certainly no reason not to get one early.” Weiss eyed Blake hungrily. She would look incredible in a suit. Who was xe kidding, all women looked incredible in suits.

“What are you going to wear, Ren?” Nora eyed Ren critically, seeming to debate whether they would look better in a suit or dress.

“I don’t know.” Ren shrugged.

“Well, whatever it is it’ll look great!” Nora hugged them enthusiastically. “And now I can’t wait until next semester, dang it!”

“Hopefully next semester goes more smoothly than this one has been.” Blake rolled her eyes. “What a series of disasters.”

“I’m sure nothing is going to go wrong, after all, the Vytal Tournament is happening! And we’re all getting along really well as a team, _and_ we’re practically the best team in this class.” Ruby bounced excitedly.

“Hey, we’re the best team in the class. Pyrrha’s never lost in single combat in Professor Goodwich’s class.” Jaune objected. “And I’m getting okay at fighting.”

“I guess we’ll just have to find out at the Tournament.” Ruby grinned. “We’ll kick your butts. I bet Blake could beat Pyrrha in single combat anyway, since she can make her permanent clones.”

“Actually, I’m not sure if I should be using those abilities in public. Or if I even could if it’s sunny in the arena. I’m a lot closer to normal person strength in direct sunlight.” Blake’s ears were slightly pulled in against her head, and she was blushing lightly. “I’m not that good.”

“Nah, you’re the best.” Ruby blew a kiss at Blake. “Best girlfriend.”

###### Blake

Blake knocked on team JNPR’s door. “Hey, can I use your room for a little?”

“Sure,” Jaune opened the door with a smile, “but what do you mean by use it?”

“I need some peace and quiet to do something. Ruby and Weiss are playing XCOM 2 multiplayer, and they’ve both gotten really competitive about it. Also, your window is facing the right direction to be able to see the moon right now.” Blake _did_ enjoy watching those two have fun together on their playdate, but she would be far too distracted to do what she planned in the same room as them.

“What’s important about the moon?” Jaune questioned, even as he stepped aside.

“I kin the fuck out of it, that’s what.” Blake grinned at Jaune’s continued confusion as she stepped past him, though not without affectionately ruffling his hair. “Don’t worry about it.” 

The other team members were all busy with their own activities. Ren and Nora studying together in a bed, and Pyrrha carefully cleaning her weapon. Blake claimed a small desk and unhitched the small bag she now always kept tied at her side, pulling out her tarot deck.

As she shuffled her deck, she looked out their window at the moon. It was in a phase that proudly presented its shattered side in full relief against the night sky. She smiled, and wondered if she could do something similar someday. The more time passed, the closer she felt to the moon. It was the only celestial companion that she would ever willingly expose herself to anymore. The weak, reflected sunlight didn’t bother her at all. If anything, it felt soothing and natural. 

It felt as if she had reflected Yang’s light the same way that the moon did, back before they had run away. A great big passionate companion who had stayed at her side even as she was gradually shattered, separated from most of the world. Those pieces were mostly still hovering about her, sometimes she turned, and everything looked intact, sometimes it was glaringly obvious, but she still hadn’t figured out how to fit most of them back together yet. Certainly, the end result would be different, with some pieces missing, and some gained. But it would still be her. Still the moon. Still inextricably tied to Yang’s Sun. And that didn’t have to be a bad thing, even if they were only ever best friends.

After a moment of contemplation, she laid out sixteen cards. Four corners of a square, then three more around each of those, in the directions of the three others. She reached out, and turned over the first card-

“Ooooo, what’s this?” Only for Nora to suddenly coo curiously into her ear and make her jump so high she nearly toppled out of her chair. 

“Nora.” Ren gently chided Nora from the other side of Blake’s head. “Don’t scare people.”

“How did you even manage to sneak up on me?” Blake shook her head. She should have heard and smelt Nora approaching from yards away, and Ren as well. She checked the desk, her spread was undisturbed.

“Sorry, you were just really distracted and totally sucked into whatever this is so I had to know what you’re doing.” Nora squinted appraisingly. “It doesn’t look like solitaire.”

“It’s a tarot reading.” Blake rolled her eyes, amused. 

“Cool! Would you tell us about it?” Nora beamed excitedly.

“Well, normally I’d be happy to. But this one is sort of personal.” Blake hesitated. She hadn’t gone out of her way to either hide or reveal this to anyone, it was all just too personal, and she didn’t tend to break out her deck for a reading anyway, except when she was really concerned and searching for ideas of what to do. 

“We don’t mean to intrude, but we are good friends, are we not?” Ren sounded hurt.

“That’s... true.” Blake frowned, not entirely sure why that had been her first answer. She could probably use someone grounding her, and honestly, why not trust Ren and Nora with knowing things about the four of them? They had a book club where they discussed erotica for fuck’s sake. If that didn’t qualify at least Ren to be in on literally everything in her life, nothing did. She didn’t want an audience in search of entertainment, but Ren and Nora were asking because they wanted to be there for her. “Yeah, alright, I think better with an audience anyway.”

“Awesome.” Nora fist pumped and cheered under her breath.

“So, the corners of this are each member of team RWBY, in the order that you would read them in. The three cards around each corner are that person’s relationships with the other three team members.” Blake went ahead and flipped each of their personal cards, revealing Temperance, the nine of cups, the Moon, and the Sun in reverse, respectively. Her first reaction was to pick up the Sun and caress its glossy surface. “Oh Yang.”

“I suppose that that’s a bad thing, then?” The corners of Ren’s mouth were tilted down at just the slightest degree.

“Yeah. I mean, I already knew, but just hearing over the phone and seeing it like this...,” Blake sighed before continuing, “they’re two different kinds of realization. Normally, the Sun is joy. Warmth. Passion. Yang. Inverted, it’s depression and negativity. Which is to be expected, really.”

“Hey.” Nora rested a comforting hand on Blake’s shoulder. “She’ll recover. Eventually.”

“Yeah.” Blake tugged the hand and encouraged Nora into fully embracing her. “Mmmf, your hugs almost feel like Yang’s, except that you’re a foot too short and don’t have wings.”

Nora huffed, but before she could comment Ren joined the hug from the other side. 

“It gets better, even if it never really goes away.”

The two way hug was squishy and comfortable, but Blake had to end it eventually. “Alright, anyway, the other ones.” She put the Sun card back where it belonged on the spread. “Temperance for Ruby. Ruby’s getting better at introspecting, and using that introspection to find balance, mostly in the mind. There’s almost this sense of peace to the card, though she hasn't recovered that much yet.” 

It made Blake think about the small steps Ruby had taken, and how she was definitely becoming gradually more confident and stable. The self-appointed goals that made her light up with glee as she accomplished them, and the way she stared off into the distance with a wondrous expression on her face when she realized something.

“Gayyyy.” Nora breathed into Blake’s ear.

“What?” Blake said, only to break out smiling a moment later. “What’s gay about recovering from trauma?” 

“Not that, that face you were making. That was the gay part.” Nora playfully stuck out her tongue.

“It’s not my fault that Ruby’s really pretty when she’s happy and she’s really happy when she figures things out.” Blake pretended to pout. “But, uh, anyway, Weiss. Nine of Cups. Xe’s out there, being xyr most authentic self, and xe’s in a position of abundant close relationships. In other words, xyr cup overflows with life’s bounty. Xe deserves it, after everything that happened just a few weeks into the semester, and then with me and the White Fang.”

“What happened near the start of the semester other than the White Fang stuff?” Ren seemed as if they were trying to remember what Blake meant.

“Sorry, I’m actually not allowed to tell you what exactly happened. Basically, Jacques did some really messed up stuff to try and control xyr. It was really worrying for a while, but what he was trying to do failed.” 

“Should I break his legs if I ever see him?” Nora asked, completely serious.

“I’m pretty sure Weiss would want to have the first go at him, but if xe isn’t around you might as well do it in xyr name.” Blake agreed.

“Please don’t encourage her.” Ren practically begged.

“Sorry Ren.” Blake turned to Nora and corrected herself. “Only do it if Weiss isn’t around _and_ you can get away with it.”

“Aye, aye, captain.” Nora enthusiastically saluted, though to the tune of Ren groaning in distress.

Ren facepalmed. It looked painful.

“And the moon for me. I actually got it the last time I took a reading for myself as well. I like to think that what it represents is an ideal that I’m getting closer to. A connection to instinct and sensuality. It’s dark and mysterious, and also totally sexy.” Blake grinned. 

“Okay, you’re sexy, yes, but the moon?” Nora stared contemplatively out the window and scratched her head.

“Don’t you know that the Sun, Moon, and ocean are lesbians and they’re all dating each other?” Blake tsked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“I am confused and yet, in awe of your ability to make things gayer.” Nora bowed.

“As you should be.” Blake smugly wiggled her ears, satisfied. “What was I talking about before?”

“The moon.” Ren helpfully chimed in.

“Right! Yes!” Blake snapped her fingers in Ren’s direction. “I actually already said everything there is to say about that. I’ll do Ruby’s other bits first then. The Queen of Wands with Weiss. The Queen of Cups with me. Aww, we’re her queens.” She smiled proudly, and preened a little bit before moving on. “The Three of Swords, inverted, with Yang.”

“Yaas, queen.” Nora enthusiastically high fived Blake.

“All women are queens.” Ren threw in their own two lien.

“Damn right Renny.” Nora slapped them on the back, slightly harder than necessary.

“Anyway. The Queen of Wands is a very good influence. The Wands suit is all about fire and energy, in the emotional sense. The Queen embodies her suit and acts as an influence to bring those aspects to others. In other words, Ruby feels like she can draw strength from Weiss.” Blake smiled. She had a tendency to do something similar recently, whenever she started to dwell too much on the past. “The Cups, meanwhile, are associated with water, and their Queen is a comforting presence. More than that though, it’s about following the heart, and the freedom of doing so, even when sometimes it can be an uncertain journey. She seems especially relaxed around me lately, for some reason.” 

“So what about the last one. Is it a bad thing that it’s inverted? The Sun was pretty bad when it came up inverted.” Nora peered cautiously at the Three of Swords. It was a particularly negative card in nature, and the illustration of a woman impaled by three swords emphasized that well.

“Inversion changes the meaning. Not exactly making it’s meaning the opposite, but more like the other side of the same coin, or possibly a deviation from what the card normally represents. It varies a fair bit by card. For the Three of Swords, I’m glad to see it inverted. The right way up, it’s representative of heartbreak and trauma. Inverted, it represents forgiveness, and the act of leaving behind the relationships or habits that hurt you, or of recovering from grief.”

“Forgiveness doesn’t have to be a part of recovery.” Ren muttered bitterly, too quietly for a human to hear, but Blake could hear every word clearly.

“Not necessarily, but there’s no way that walking around eternally angry or taking revenge is a good idea.” Blake raised an eyebrow. “That sort of thing doesn’t tend to work out well, just look at where the White Fang is now. Eventually, you need to let it go and hope that the other party has genuinely become better and believe that it won’t happen again.”

“Some things are different.” Ren shook their head dismissively. “Sorry though, I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

“It’s fine. Anyway, for Ruby, I’d say that she’s managing to let go of Yang, yeah. It’s a relief, and the only good thing about Yang being away.” Blake sighed. In a way, it was bittersweet to think about, just because it was a reminder that Ruby had been hurt in the first place. But still a good thing, Ruby did seem to be doing well. She hoped.

“Mmm, mmm.” Nora nodded enthusiastically. “That’s a good sign.”

Blake stretched in the chair and yawned wide. She felt a bit restless, but she’d only gotten about halfway through her own reading. “I’m going to fetch a snack, y’all want anything?”

“Pancakes?” Nora turned and looked hopefully at Ren, her eyes wide.

“We can’t have pancakes every time you get hungry for a snack.” Ren rolled their eyes. “But okay. Just this once. For the book club.”

“Score!” Nora shouted, breaking the peace of the late night dorm room.

“Nice, guess we’re having pancakes then.” Blake shrugged. “But if anyone in this room touches my tarot cards with syrupy hands I will be very angry with them.” She shot Nora a pointed look. “Come to mention it, don’t touch them at all unless I give you permission.”

“Yes ma’am!” Nora saluted before rushing off to the communal dorm kitchen with Ren.


	36. Something

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> gonna be a full chapter of JNPR going camping next chapter

My negotiations with the Grand Magus were successful. I do not know what information I traded, as before I was allowed to meet with them, I agreed to have my memory of the proceedings wiped at the end of negotiations, but they have agreed to serve as informants on the actions of the Mistrali military. This is the final stroke that could turn the war in our favor, especially if I should utilize the Crown.

- **Oswald, final King of Vale, report on initial Great War alliance negotiations with Mistral Necromancer’s Guild**

Psychic powers are, by the standards we typically use to explain semblances, incredibly minor things. A semblance that affects the target’s mind is far more advanced and delicate than anything modern technology is capable of, simply because the brain is the most complex and delicate organ in the entire body.

An incredibly minor electric current can have drastic effects on the brain, and semblances capable of doing things such as altering emotional states, causing hallucination, or allowing for telepathic communication do so with extremely delicate chemical and electrical alterations. Using such semblances, there have been studies to attempt to better understand fine details of how the brain works, however the detected changes caused by such semblances on volunteers have all been more minute and delicate than can be directly measured or reproduced. It has been proven that nonphysical communication through means other than a semblance does not cause activity in the speech centers of the brain, while with a semblance it does. 

- **excerpt from Semblances and understanding the most intricate workings of the brain, lecture given by Doctor Vladimir Volokhov at Atlas Institution of Military Research and Development**

{For further details on related tests, and the proof of the final statement, see incident WV-7 and the consequent analysis of the subjects involved.}4

###### Ruby

“Wait, what? Oh come on, who gets a blademaster ranger in multiplayer? The stealthy one is way more useful.” Ruby groaned as her last unit became a chrysalid, which would die immediately because of the blademaster’s ability if she tried to attack with it.

“Smart players who notice their girlfriend’s overutilization of chrysalids, as well as the slightly disturbing amount of glee with which she kills civilians to make cocoons.” Weiss smirked, moved xyr last unit of the turn, and won the match. Xe proceeded to cackle maniacally.

“Look, the alien units are just more fun because I played the whole campaign three times, each with more DLC than the last, and am like a quarter of the way through the Long War 2. You only ever get people for all that stuff. Plus, you’ve never worked retail part time over the summer, you have no idea how much civilians suck sometimes. It’s cathartic violence.” Ruby yawned as she put down her scroll. “I wonder what Blake’s doing.”

“Well, right now I’m sneaking up behind you to surprise you.” A voice spoke from what felt like right next to Ruby’s ear, making her jump and fall out of her chair with a thud. “Hmm, it worked.”

“Meanie.” Ruby said as she got back up, utterly without conviction.

“I am curious, however. What were you doing?” Weiss shut down XCOM, and swiveled xyr chair about.

“I did a tarot reading with Ren and Nora. You and I came up as being Ruby’s queens.” Blake smirked conspiratorially at Weiss.

“Nice.” Ruby bobbed her head appreciatively. “I like it. How was the rest of it?

“Mostly good things.” Blake grinned. “My new perspective is really satisfying.”

“Cool.” Ruby looked awkwardly between Weiss and Blake. She was alone in her room with her girlfriends. Now what?

“There is a reason why I came back here, other than what I already said.” Blake seemed to be looking at Ruby in an attempt to communicate something specific.

“What is it?”

“I was wondering if you’d like me to drink some of your blood, as a treat, and a celebration.” Blake smiled toothily, showing off her fangs and making Ruby gulp.

A grimace even Ruby hadn’t expected formed in response to Blake’s suggestion. She had been incredibly enthusiastic about the idea at one point, but now imagining it just made her think of Yang. “I don’t think I’d be okay with that. I just... ugh. It being romantic instead of by necessity really changes the meaning.” Her hands twitched, and she really wanted to just go fight some beowolves. “It makes me angry. I can’t even be excited about any kind of kisses now. Not without thinking about what happened.” She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, doing her best to push the thoughts and memories out of her head. 

“I’m sorry.” Blake’s ears drooped sympathetically. “Are you sure you wouldn’t feel better if you tried to talk about it?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Ruby realized that her hands were clenched into painfully tight fists, and she unclenched them. They still hurt, so she turned them over and looked at her palms. They were bleeding slightly.

“You should heal that.” Weiss said, already supportively situated at Ruby’s other side.

“Right.” Ruby lowered her hands without healing them. The pain was kind of nice, actually. “Can we just talk about anything else? Like, training. I finished coming up with all the team attack names. They also double as ship names.”

“What about the attacks themselves?” Weiss quirked an eyebrow, indicating that xe was Serious.

“Oh yeah, those too.” Ruby waved a hand dismissively. “Not nearly as important as the names though.”

Weiss facepalmed hard enough to make Ruby and Blake giggle.

“Okay, no I was just kidding.” Ruby remembered to flair her aura and heal herself as she started smiling again. “Monochrome is really exciting, it’s where you both get buffed by Weiss’ time dilation glyph and charge.”

“Time dilation is the second most difficult and most dangerous glyph in my semblance, I need time to practice using it on others without certain... side effects.” Weiss concluded, incredibly vaguely.

“What sort of side effects, exactly?” Blake’s eyes narrowed.

“Oh, the usual. Paranoia, short term memory loss, sensory hallucinations, loss of ability to comprehend speech. All temporary, of course.”

“Why?” Blake recoiled.

“The glyph uses direct electrical current to accelerate the mind’s perception of time, it is an incredibly delicate procedure.” 

“Can we do something else?” Blake looked at Ruby hopefully.

“Nope, once you’ve got it down it’ll be really strong, although wow, I did not realize that those were things that could happen. Sorry. Ladybug shouldn’t be bad though. Oh, but you should build up more upper body muscle for bumblebee.” Ruby grinned. “And because muscles are hot, but I swear I didn’t come up with it for that.”

“That’s still a good reason to do it anyway though.” Blake smiled. “Hey, can I hold your hand?”

Ruby paused and fluttered her wings, sidetracked. “Why?”

“I just really want to.” Blake’s ears were wriggling nervously.

“Alright. Loosely.” Ruby held her left hand out and Blake took it. She imagined that it was soft and warm, and it suddenly felt like the other one was distractingly empty. “Weiss, you too.”

Weiss’ hand slipped into Ruby’s free one. In contrast to Blake’s, it felt cool and strong.

“Do you ever feel like everything is just so close to falling into place, but so far away at the same time?” Blake said with a sigh.

“Yeah.” Ruby rubbed her thumb against Blake’s palm. “Sometimes you just need time. I know I do. Or to just forget.” She laughed dryly, then realized something. Maybe she _could_ forget.

“I have no intention of forgetting.” All of a sudden Weiss’ voice was tight, severe. “I intend to end it.”

“Me too. Although, not really. It’s not like I could take down the whole White Fang myself.” Blake sighed.

“Not with that attitude you can’t!” Ruby grinned. “But I bet we could do anything together, as a team.”

“But we aren’t together, not right now.” Weiss poignantly pointed out.

“Well, not too much longer before we are again.” Ruby shrugged. Right here, right now, she felt strong, safe, and optimistic. In a way, she did want the team together again, to get back to helping people.

###### Raven

Of the four members of team STRQ, Raven had always been the weak one. Sure, she could reliably beat Tai in a fight, was evenly matched with Qrow, and ever since Summer had lost her eye Raven could handily win against her as well. But she needed to always have something. Anything. A reason to keep going, since her own life wasn’t worth a damn. First the old clan, then Tai, then Yang and Vernal. But Vernal was dead, and Yang was an adult, more than capable of managing on her own.

For weeks she was like a ghost in Summer’s house. She ate, slept, and busied herself with fighting off any Grimm in the area for practice and exercise, always alone. Ruby mailed her her new foot, and it was easy enough to use, just like the old one, except that it didn’t have nerve endings and could mechashift into a pistol. That had tripped her up more than a little bit the first time it had happened. Damn that gun nut, she had specifically requested a normal foot.

It felt like it had been an eternity since she had been happy. She wanted to throw herself at Summer and Tai, who she knew would welcome her, but she deserved to wallow, directionless. And then Summer decided to pull some bullshit.

“Stop being sad.” A familiar voice accosted Raven as she was on her way up the stairs.

“Excuse you?” She looked up from her feet and glared at Summer, who was standing cockily at the top of the stairs, her wings extended to block access to the hall beyond.

“Stop being sad.” Summer didn’t flinch away in the slightest, instead challenging Raven with a stare that nearly matched her own in intensity.

“I thought I told you to leave me alone and not pull any of your bullshit.” Raven considered walking away and leaving with Daisy right then and there, but that wasn’t what she actually wanted to do. Not again.

“You told me to let you mourn in peace. Well, you aren’t mourning anymore, you’re just moping.”

“Shut up. You don’t know what you’re talking about.” There was no strength behind the words. Raven tried to be pissed, she tried to storm off angrily, but she couldn’t. Not with Summer, not when it was all so painfully and obviously true. 

“Raven Deathblade Branwen, you get your foot out of your mouth before I shove mine up your butt.” Summer used the secret middle name Raven had made up with Qrow when they were ten. Damn it Qrow.

“Qrow’s middle name is Doomscythe. Also, your mouth or your foot?”

Summer was suddenly too busy giggling to answer the question. “Doomscythe? That’s like something Ruby would pick.” She was nearly doubled over with laughter, and there were tears in her eyes.

“We were ten! And being raised by bandits after killing our abusive father, of course we were edgy little shits.” Raven tried and failed to scowl. At least Qrow’s was worse than hers.

“There it is!” Summer’s cheeks dimpled as she pointed at Raven, almost smugly.

“There what is?”

“Your smile!”

The smile Raven hadn’t even known was there faded away. “It still doesn’t feel like I deserve it.”

“Deserve what?”

“Plenty of things. Happiness, home, family, to be alive. You, back in my life.” Raven sighed. She wished she was strong enough to handle Summer without folding to nearly her every whim and being read like a book, even if another, more reasonable part of her was relieved that she wasn’t. “Why is everyone I fall in love with so much better than me?“

“Alright, this is officially a sitting on the couch and drinking hot chocolate while wrapped in blankets conversation now.” Summer descended the stairs and herded Raven into the living room, where two very conspicuous mugs of hot coco were already set out and still steaming.

“It’s spring, and it’s far too hot for any of those things.” Raven tried to complain, but in the end put up no meaningful resistance to Summer’s diligent efforts to wrap her into a blanket burrito. It did feel rather comfortable. 

“Now drink.” Summer shoved a mag into Raven’s blanket stunted hands before grabbing her own. Her remaining eye shined like a dull star as she sipped ponderously at the beverage. “You’re not lesser than anyone Rae.”

“You can’t pretend that I’m not the weak one. The one who’s only even been good for running away from her life. First the old clan, then Tai, and now you and him and Vernal all at once.” 

“You’re not running away now and you weren’t running away then. Tai told you to leave, you had every right not to come back.” 

“Is that really what you think? Did you really never _notice_?”

“Notice what?”

“Me. Did you really think that Yang was all it took? That everything just changed on a whim because he thought I’d cheated on him? That lovey dovey himbo? For fuck’s sake, from practically the moment I married him I was sabotaging myself at every possible turn.” 

“I... never noticed.” Summer stared guiltily into her mug. “I was too busy pining over both of you. I failed as a leader.”

“No. You didn’t. You can’t expect to be able to fix all of our personal problems, especially when I’m the one making everything go wrong. The only mistake you ever made was saving my life and losing that eye in turn.” 

“Don’t you dare say that. I would have happily lost both eyes to save you, and I’d lose the other one today if I had to.” 

“All this time, all that insight, and you still don’t understand. You don’t see it, even though it’s so obvious. It’s staring you right in the face. It’s everything I’ve ever lived, even during the good times. Don’t you understand?” 

“I’m sorry Rae, but you’re going to have to tell me.”

“I’m _nothing_ , Summer.” Raven laughed, and finally let out all the bitterness that had been building up for weeks finally bubbling out of her. All of it was in that laugh, directed not at Summer, but herself. “Nothing. The smallest portion of anyone else is infinitely more important than I am, and one of these days someone is going to realize that, and when they do I won’t be strong enough to survive, no matter how good a fighter I am. I should have died time and time again, but every fucking time another dumbass comes along, saves me, and tries to tell me that I’m worth something, but they’re wrong.” 

“Stop it!” Summer had crawled across the couch and began beating weakly against Raven’s blanket-covered chest with both fists. “Stop! Please... please stop.” Slowly, shouting turned to sobs and blows turned into an all-encompassing hug. “Stop being so careless with everyone’s feelings for you.”

“Why should I? The sooner everyone finally realizes what I am, the less they sacrifice for me. The less they’ll be hurt whenever I finally die.” Raven kept her expression as vacant and lifeless as she felt. It was better this way.

“You’re so wrong you big dumb idiot.” Summer said, her words interspersed with snuffling as tears trailed down her cheeks. She reached up and grabbed Raven’s hands as her aura enveloped both of them. “Why do you keep forgetting that?” 

“I don’t know.” Now Raven was crying too, feeling the same things as Summer. So much worry, so much love. Why did she seem to do this so often? Just another sign of how fucked up she was. “Please help me.”

“Absolutely. All three of the other people living in this house want you to be happy.” Summer’s pristine white aura faded, leaving behind only a faint impression of her feelings. “But you need to try too. No more half-assing your relationships with your old team.”

“I swear.” Raven wiggled her arms out of the blankets and wrapped them around Summer in a desperately needed hug. “On Vernal’s name.”

###### Yang

“Give me a strawberry sunrise.” Yang flashed her hunter’s license at the bartender, counting that he either wouldn’t notice that it was only provisional and she wasn’t twenty-one, or that he wouldn’t care. Usually they just didn’t care, not in towns like this.

“In a minute.” He waved dismissively to her, already busy dealing with a few other rough-looking patrons.

Nursing a drink in a shabby bar wasn’t the best way to deal with her problems, obviously, but it was basically the only thing to do out here, in the middle of the swamplands. Besides, maybe she’d get lucky and meet someone attractive in her age group. Given that most of the clientele were about as old and raggedy as Qrow, probably not.

“Whiskey, on the rocks.” Speak of a devil.

“Seriously? Are you following me?” Yang rolled her eyes.

“Nope, just happened to catch notice of that giant mane of yours.” 

“You really expect me to believe we’re just meeting by chance?” Not that she was complaining, she just had no intention of admitting that she was glad to see the man.

“Call it bad luck if you want.” Qrow shrugged. “Doesn’t change the truth.”

“Suuure. What _are_ you doing here, then?” 

“Two things. Getting a drink, and considering whether I should get you kicked out of here for your own good.” 

“Fuck off and let me make bad choices in peace then.” 

“Excuse you, I said I was only considering it.” Qrow scoffed. “And yet you acknowledge that you’re making bad choices?”

“I have the right. I’m an adult.” Yang nodded an acknowledgement as the barkeep deposited her and Qrow’s drinks before them.

“No you aren’t kiddo. You’re eighteen, there’s a difference.” Ice cubes clinked together as Qrow took a drink. “Don’t run away from your problems the way I do.”

“It’s not like I want to. I just... I can’t deal with this shit alone, but I can’t be with the others either.” Yang sighed, and took a drink. “And also I’m bored as hell because the only things to do out here are classwork, fighting, and drinking. Two of those I never expected to get tired of, but it’s not as much fun when you’re alone.”

“I could stick with you for a while longer, if you like.”

Yang glanced at him suspiciously. “If you’re allowed to do that you must have been following me, what happened to you just being here by chance?”

“Alright, you caught me. I was following you because Ozpin thinks that you could lead us to Spring. I told him that you’re not that dumb, but he doesn’t need me anywhere else anyway.” 

“Wait, did you tell him I know about all of that?” Yang strongly preferred that Ozpin not know.

“He’s been operating under the assumption that you already know it all the entire time you’ve been at Beacon. I don’t intend to contradict or encourage him on that.” Qrow shrugged.

“Look at you, being something other than his little sheepdog.” Yang playfully ribbed her uncle. “Mom wouldn’t believe her ears.”

“Feel free to tell her, if you think she’ll be less antagonistic for it. You still haven’t given me an answer though, do you want me to come with?”

“You might as well if you’re going to follow me anyway.” Yang sipped at her drink, and after a moment of consideration, admitted the truth. “I could use someone to talk to, other than Professor Peach.”

“Peach?” Qrow’s expression briefly morphed into something Yang guessed was horror before going back to normal. But that couldn’t possibly be right. “Thumbelina Peach?”

“Yeah, I have to video call her for a counseling session every week.” 

“Doesn’t she count as someone to talk to?” 

“I mean, yes, but also no.” Yang seesawed her hand. “She is pretty cool, and Blake trusts her, but it is only one hour a week, and that means I’ve got all the other hours to be a depressed dumbass. Plus, I’m not going to tell her about the thing with Ruby, so I can’t really get her advice with everything.”

“Which part?”

“The part where I screwed up.” She hung her head in preparation to mope.

“Which part where you screwed up?” Qrow gave her a shit-eating grin.

“Oh shut up. There’s only the one that I told you about last time we drank together.” Yang lightly punched Qrow’s shoulder just as he was picking up his glass, spilling some of his drink over a nearby waitress. “Shit, sorry!”

“Don’t worry about it, just a spot of bad luck.” The waitress rubbed the shirt beneath her apron with a towel and went off somewhere, probably to get a clean apron.

“For fuck’s sake.” Qrow muttered broodily as he seemed to recede further into his barstool.

“It’s not that big a deal.” She scrutinized him carefully. There were dark bags under his eyes. “You... don’t look too good.”

“Crows can’t fly faster than sixty miles an hour at best.” Qrow yawned, probably specifically because she had mentioned how tired he looked. “I’ve been doing a lot of night flying to keep up with you.”

Yang yawned sympathetically. “Yeah, you’re definitely coming with me for a while.” She gestured for the barkeep to give Qrow each of their bills as a cascade of secondary yawns filled the entire bar. She yawned again, adding to the effect. She really was tired from all her traveling. Nearly tired enough to fall asleep right there at the bar.

“Semblance. It’s a...” Qrow’s muttering turned into a yawn. “Semblance.” A red glow flared up around him, and he seemed to perk up slightly. “Flare your...” he yawned again and drooped farther into his barstool. “Aura.”

With a great exertion of will, Yang complied. The slight protection from her aura was enough to let her keep her head up, and she clenched her jaw shut as she resisted the urge to yawn again. Nearly the entire bar was already asleep. 

As she watched, a woman in a large brown shawl and clothes that could only be described as lightweight and stained a rusted brown strode in through the front door. Her attention immediately turned to Yang and Qrow, the only people still moving, albeit slowly as they struggled to reach their weapons and keep their eyes open.

“Traveling together, are we?” The woman spoke valian with a thick vacuan accent, looming ominously over their heads. “And stubborn targets as well. No matter. Raskolnikov, finish the job.”

There should have been fear, anger, adrenaline, some response from Yang’s autonomic nervous system as a scrawny, dirty looking man stepped closer to her and Qrow. It was an obvious danger, after all, but it was all she could do to concentrate on trying to land one solid blow as the man approached.

“Time to dream, kid.” Raskolnikov stepped within fisticuffs range and reached forward, about to touch Yang’s forehead. Perfect. Without working a muscle, she activated the ice dush she had been channeling through her flared aura, grew a single icy horn on her forehead, and fell forward into a slightly awkward, gravity assisted headbutt directly at his belly.

Her headbutt hit the mark, and they fell to the floor in a tangle of limbs. Using the force and the instinctive burst of awareness from the short free fall, she activated Ember Celica and fired a shotgun round into the floor. The combination of sound and recoil through her arm was enough to shake her into near complete wakefulness, and she saw Qrow beginning to unsheathe Harbinger as she stood.

“Gregora, help!” Raskolnikov scrambled away from Yang on all fours. He didn’t look like much of a fighter, far too scrawny.

“Impudent brat.” Gregora stepped forward and drew a matched pair of slim dueling sabers. She advanced on Yang in a flurry of wild strikes, pressing her against the bar with Qrow at her back.

“Who are you people?” Yang fell back, firing a few concussive blasts in an attempt to help Qrow wake up more quickly while pushing back her attacker. Once she had been pressed back far enough, she pretended to stumble over a barstool, caught Gregora’s blade in her fist, and yanked it further towards her, pulling Gregora into a hard blow to the solar plexus.

Strangely, instead of the usual flicker of aura blocking a blow, there was a crunch of breaking bones and Gregora took two steps back as her expression tightened, as if she didn’t even have aura. What kind of would-be kidnapper didn’t have an aura? Yang’s question was answered as an aura did flare up around her, though only briefly. In the next instant, she was pressing the attack again, with no signs of injury. A small bloodstain on her front was the only sign she had been wounded in the first place.

In the middle of another flurry Qrow finally joined the fight, something Yang didn’t notice until the tip of Harbinger’s greatsword form was suddenly sticking out from the center of Gregora’s chest, something that didn’t seem to slow her down in the slightest. The blade was somehow expelled in the direction of the owner with great force as Yang watched, and the wound knit itself shut before her eyes.

“Why is she taking hits and healing them instead of letting her aura block them?” Yang asked, mostly to herself. It wasn’t as if her opponent was throwing the fight, though sandwiched between two people as she was, Gregora was taking far more blows than either of her targets.

“I have a bad feeling that we’re about to find out.” Qrow capitalized on the instant in which Gregora tripped over a chair to sever her head entirely for her body, creating a spray of blood.

Except that as Yang stepped back with the conviction that her opponent had been killed, she saw a series of small, pink objects that looked like some kind of tendon extending from the head and pulling it back to the body. It couldn’t have been more than two seconds after it was inflicted that every sign of the wound was once again gone. 

All of a sudden, Yang realized that Raskolnikov was suspiciously absent from the entire room, as well as the immediate brawl. She stepped forward and pounced on top of Gregora, hoping to get her into a hold from which she couldn’t fight back, since disabling her any other way seemed unlikely. But as she pinned the woman’s head against the ground and her arms against her back, Yang saw that her eyes had turned entirely back, and she began to exhale a foul black vapor with such speed and volume that she couldn’t even recoil before accidentally breathing some in.

And then there was pain. It felt as if Yang had been decapitated, punched, impaled, and beaten to a pulp, all at once. She couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, could only feel pain more intense than anything else she’d experienced in her life. It didn’t take long for her to lose consciousness.

###### Jaune

“Peaaaaase can we go camping.” Nora asked for what may have been the hundredth time since Jaune had made the mistake of bringing up the idea in conversation. It was getting really hard to resist her cute aqua puppy dog eyes.

“Ren, please help me.” He pleaded with his teammate. 

“This is beyond my power. I suggest you give up and we make a plan to sneak into the forest.” Ren watched casually as they sipped some tea. Where had they even gotten tea?

“But you’re not even trying!” Jaune yelped as Nora’s attempts at negotiation devolved into pinning him to the ground until he gave in and they started wrestling. “Alright, alright, I give up! We’ll make a plan to go camping.”

“Great!” Nora stopped attacking Jaune at both the least and most opportune moment possible. While he was pinned to the floor by his wrists.

“Sooo, do you want to get off of me?” Jaune chuckled nervously. He felt intimidated, but in a good way, somehow.

“Not really, but I guess I should.” Nora sighed and rolled over, laying on her back on the floor as well. “Hey, the floor is actually comfier than these beds.”

“Nora, don’t sleep on the floor, it’s bad for your back.” Ren rolled their eyes, not even bothering to look up from their book.

“But it’s nice and firm. My back is supposed to be straight, and so is the floor, even if the rest of me isn’t.” There was a pregnant pause. “Except my dick.” Nora burst into cackling laughter.

“Nora, remember the time we got stranded in that blizzard and slept in a cave? And had to sleep on the ground?”

“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that, good point.” Nora winced. “My everything hurt when we woke up.”

“Why’d you get stranded in a blizzard?” Jaune sat up, intrigued.

“We had just finished hunting down a massive pack of fifty ursa.” Nora gesticulated dramatically, even though she was still laying on the ground.

“There were two.” Ren corrected.

“And we had to outrun a massive avalanche.”

“We had a snowball fight.”

“Then we heroically retreated to our Cave of Solitude.”

“We were hiding from an actual giant pack of ursa, attracted by the snowball fight.”

“And I fell asleep before I could set up my sleeping bag, then Ren cuddled up to me for warmth. They were very cute when they woke up the next morning.” 

Intriguingly, Ren made no comment, though Jaune almost thought that he saw them blushing.


	37. Team JNPR Goes Camping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dang, this took two weeks. I got a little bit distracted

###### Nora

Team JNPR snuck out of their dorm on Friday night, each of them wearing heavy backpacks, stuffed with essential supplies. They traveled in silence under the moonlight, though Nora only barely managed to avoid breaking out into song. They were going camping! Together!

The border between Beacon and the Emerald Forest was defined by an eight foot tall electrified fence powerful enough to destroy any beowolf that wandered to close, such that it wasn’t necessary to post guards of any kind. Any Grimm powerful enough to break through the fence would set off an alarm when the current was cut off entirely, and be promptly destroyed by an entire school of heavily armed students. Not that that had ever even happened. Jaune held up his hand as they reached the predetermined spot by the fence, indicating for all of them to stop and huddle.

“Alright, one last check before we head out into the wilderness.” Jaune turned around and whispered to everyone. “Everybody brought all the things on their packing lists, right? Tent? Food? Water purification tablets? Spare ammo? Two lighters, in case one of them gets wet or runs out of fuel? Swimsuits? Spare combat outfits? Medical supplies?” 

“Don’t worry,” Nora waved at Jaune for him to get moving on with the plan, “Ren made sure we have everything we need packed away. Fishing poles and pancake batter too.”

“Don’t worry, we’re fine.” Ren nodded in agreement.

“You didn’t actually bring pancake batter, right?” Jaune still wasn’t convinced.

“I took away all five bags of batter that she tried to sneak into her backpack. And the syrup.”

Nora made a show of pouting and giving Ren a betrayed look, but actually, she had packed seven bags of batter mix that only needed water, and had a spigot she could use to extract her own syrup from mother nature hidden in her skirt pocket. She was still a little disappointed; that wouldn’t even be enough for one breakfast with everyone.

“Alright then.” Now that it was time to cross the fence, Jaune was even more nervous. “Nora, you’re sure you’ll be fine?”

“Pfft, don’t worry about it. This is nowhere near as much electricity as when I got struck by lightning.” Nora stepped up to the fence, rubbing her palms together in anticipation. “You’re the ones who need to make sure you’re ready for Nora Valkyrie's Wild Ride.”

“I’ll go first so that I can catch everyone else.” Pyrrha stepped up a few feet in front of Nora, and secured her backpack to herself one last time before nodding.

“Sure.” Nora turned around and grabbed hold of the fence, sending electricity arcing through her body and charging her semblance. It hurt a bit, but less than pure lightning dust did. At this point, she actually sort of got off on the pain. After a few seconds of charging up, she let go and made Pyrrha a step with her hands, then boosted her up over the fence with all the enhanced force she could muster. She just barely resisted the temptation to shout “yeet!” as loudly as she possibly could. Instead she whispered it.

Pyrrha soared majestically through the air, and landed on the other side of the fence with a fancy triple backflip. Basically every combat-adjacent activity she did was majestic, so it wasn’t surprising that being yote over an electrified fence would turn out looking so good either. Her hair was even fluttering dramatically in the wind.

Just to be safe, Nora checked her aura meter. Still above ninety percent. After repeating the process with her other two teammates, she did the same thing and charged up one last time. She jumped as high as she could, with the intention of getting over the fence, only for her arc to bring her to a peak with her hands just a few inches below the top of the fence. It was then that she realized her mistake. She had used the same amount of force on herself as she had on the others, but she had not only overpacked, and thus weighed more, she also had less assistance in gaining height than them, because there was no one to boost off of. Whoops.

Nora gritted her teeth and clung to the fence as high up as she could. The jolt of electricity that ran through her when she did was nearly enough to make her fall down again, but she needed to climb across this fence. One massive heave, empowered, but not too empowered, gave her the strength to pull herself over, even through the muscle spasms caused by the electricity running rampant through her body.

Then she was briefly falling, and couldn't manage to orient herself or remember what her landing strategy was going to be. There was a brief moment of panic, followed by a muffled “oomph” as she landed in someone’s arms without completely bowling them over.

“Hello again.” Pyrrha smiled down at Nora from above like some sort of gallant deity. 

“Hi Pyrrha.” Nora giggled, and made no move to get out of Pyrrha’s arms. She liked being in Pyrrha’s arms. She was probably the only one on the team strong enough to carry Nora around.

“Using her semblance outside of a fight always makes her a little bit loopy.” Ren came up with a really good excuse for Nora to stay in Pyrrha’s arms, even if Nora wasn’t completely sure whether it was true or not at the moment.

“Ah, well... I suppose I had better carry her for a while then.” Pyrrha seemed slightly panicked about the idea, but Nora immediately cheered and made herself comfortable in her new position. It was a disappointing amount of comfort, mostly because of the sixty pound backpack.

“Just make sure you hand her off or make us rest before you get tired.” Jaune had a strange expression on his face as he looked at Pyrrha, but shrugged and started hiking in a direction he had already determined, compass in hand. “We’re camping two miles away from the school, just in case they have patrols or they think Nora was an ancient grimm that turned around when it hit the fence.

###### Pyrrha

Carrying Nora was like carrying a very cute, normally very hyper bear that was constantly on the verge of going into hibernation. And also a very bulky backpack. It was slightly awkward, very endearing, and just the slightest bit concerning. Every now and again a small bit of electricity would arc off of Nora and jump to one of the many metal parts of Pyrrha’s outfit, stinging her a little bit.

The forest was dappled with moonlight, giving the many trees and flowers of late spring an ethereal glow as the team made their way to their destination. Conversation was sparse, up until Ren ended up being the first one to call for a break, after maybe thirty minutes of walking.

“You really do need the endurance training, huh?” Jaune was sweating lightly, but Ren was thoroughly out of breath as they made themselves comfortable in their natural surroundings.

“True.” Ren looked relieved to set aside their pack and sprawl out on a patch of fresh green grass.

“Thanks for carrying me!” Nora gave Pyrrha a quick peck on the cheek before hopping out of her arms and bouncing around excitedly. She looked all about her, probably in search of something interesting to do.

“How long have you been ready to walk on your own?” Pyrrha rolled her eyes at Nora’s spontaneous recovery. She wasn’t really annoyed though, she was plenty fit enough to handle it, and it had been fun to carry Nora.

“Dunno, time is an illusion anyway. I just really like being carried around.” Nora stretched, making her top ride up and reveal her abs. Pyrrha looked respectfully.

“How are you doing Ren?” Jaune crouched down next to Ren, resting a hand on their shoulder.

“I just need a few minutes and some water.” Ren pulled out a bottle of water and chugged it, spilling a little bit down their front in a way that made their shirt stick to their chest and show off their pecs. Not that Pyrrha was looking. Definitely not looking.

Nora yawned loudly enough to scare off some nearby birds as she stretched out her entire body again. “How much further?”

“We’re about halfway there.” Jaune patted Ren’s back reassuringly. “You three are actually a bit slow.”

“Are you used to this?” Pyrrha was surprised by how well Jaune was holding up.

“Yeah, we went backpacking a bunch back home. Took a big family trip through the mountains once, traveled a good hundred miles in two weeks. It was a lot of fun.” Jaune took a deep breath. “I _am_ glad that we’re going camping, I just wish we actually had permission for it.”

“Aww, you goody-two-shoes.” Nora grabbed Jaune and put him into an affectionate headlock. “Don’t worry, we won’t get caught. Nobody could possibly know we’re out here.”

###### Ozpin

Ozpin placidly sipped his coco as he watched the Beacon camera feeds. It may have been the middle of the night, but evil never rests. In fact, it had a tendency to be nocturnal. Tonight, however, his interest in the goings-on at his school were purely a matter of leisure.

Just as Nora was putting Jaune into a headlock, the elevator to his office began moving. With a beleaguered sigh Ozpin closed the video feed and switched to some paperwork he still needed to complete before the next week began. Holotechnology was incredibly useful at times, but it also meant that any passerby could identify what he was doing, should they happen to stroll in.

“To what do I owe the pleasure, at this late hour?” Ozpin announced right as the doors slid open, as if he already knew who was inside.

“I was retrieving a lost item, and I was curious as to why you were still here.” Glynda’s stare was more suspicious than usual. She had never caught Ozpin doing anything untoward, and yet she seemed suspicious of his activities at all times regardless. Or perhaps that was simply the aura she exuded with every student and faculty member. It was very useful in drawing forth confessions.

“There is always more paperwork to be done, Glynda. Always.” Ozpin gave her his most convincing soulless, drained look, and she nodded in understanding.

“Of course, I’ll leave you to it then. Good night, headmaster.” She stepped back into the elevator.

“Goodnight, Glynda.” Ozpin bid her farewell, then reopened the feed from the Emerald Forest the moment the doors closed. Damn, he had missed the fight and team JNPR were just walking again. Ah well, he settled down into his chair. It was still more entertaining than Friends reruns. Though he really needed to add audio feeds to these cameras before the next initiation.

###### Jaune

They managed to reach the campsite Jaune had picked out without any trouble, either from faculty or Grimm. They unpacked, and set up their four person tent, then secured their food from a tree where a bear or ursa wouldn’t be able to reach it.

“Oh dear.” Pyrrha frowned as she was emptying out the more personal equipment that she had volunteered to bring. “I forgot to bring our sleeping bags. All I have is this one very large quilt.”

“That’s okay, we’ll just have to huddle together for warmth.” Jaune gave Pyrrha a reassuring pat on the shoulder, which she turned into a big hug.

“I’m sorry.” Jaune thought that he heard Pyrrha and Nora high five as his fack was turned, although it might have just been the sound of Ren facepalming.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s summer anyway, so it’s not like it’ll be cold.” He really liked Pyrrha’s hugs, they were so strong without being crushing like Nora’s. Which were also nice. 

“Alright, gimme.” Nora grabbed the quilt, already in the middle of another yawn. “I’m tired.” She opened up the tent and collapsed into it in a heap with the quilt, seemingly completely asleep.

“I like sleepy Nora. She’s cute.” Jaune smiled at the sight of the gently snoring girl, then frowned a moment later. “Although she’s also hogging the quilt.”

“I’ll set that up.” Ren stepped into the tent and gently began to unroll the quilt across the bottom without moving Nora around in the process.

“Mmm,” Pyrrha yawned too, “well, it’s already pretty late. Let’s all go to bed so we can be ready in the morning.”

“Agreed. Team JNPR...” Jaune yawned as well. It really was contagious. “Going to bed.” He left his shoes at the tent entrance and lay on the quilt next to Ren, who had maneuvered Nora to one of the sides of the tent. Pyrrha lay next to him, and all three of their shoulders were close enough as to be touching.

It was easy to fall asleep, so close to all his teammates.

###### 

The next morning, Jaune woke up with at least three different arms that were not his own draped across his chest. In the night, Pyrrha and Ren had both cuddled up to him, and Nora’s arm had reached all the way across Ren and latched onto him as well. All three of them were still asleep as the morning sun began to shine through the wall of the tent and a few distant birds chirped. 

It was so nice to have such close friends that they could all cuddle together. Jaune hadn’t had much physical contact with anyone outside of his sisters before, and it honestly felt to him like Nora, Ren and Pyrrha were already family too. Sort of a different kind of family from his sisters though.

Jaune didn’t dare try to get out of bed and risk disturbing any of the three people who were all perfectly capable of crushing him to death if they didn’t want him to leave. He also sort of didn’t actually want to get out anyway. Then Nora rolled over and started crushing him in her sleep.

“Nora no.” Jaune tried to whisper and wake Nora up, but it didn’t seem to work.

“Nora yes!” Nora somehow managed to shout without waking up, though Ren and Pyrrha did start shifting about sleepily as she did.

“Nora, no.” Pyrrha grabbed onto Nora and rolled to the side as well.

“But pancaaaakes.” Nora groaned, her eyes slowly fluttering open. “Ohh, hey.”

“You need to let us get out of bed if you want to make pancakes.” Jaune sighed and stretched as he got up.

“Fiine.” Nora reluctantly let go of Pyrrha, who looked a bit disappointed as well.

“You don’t actually have any pancakes, right?”

“Of course I do, silly. This too.” Nora wagged her finger and pulled out something that looked like a spigot from her pocket. She held it out to Ren. “I don’t actually know how to use it though. Ren?”

“I’ll get it.” Ren rolled their eyes as they took the spigot, but they were smiling.

“Thanks Renny!” Nora followed Ren out of the tent, babbling excitedly about what they were all going to do for breakfast.

Reluctantly, Jaune got up as well and wandered outside. The sun was already up and out, and reflecting off of the dewy grass. Nora was rummaging through her backpack holding a pan and two plastic bags of pancake mix aloft in her free hand.

“I’ll get some firewood then. Coraca Mors will probably be pretty good for chopping it.” Jaune checked that he had his weapon and some water, then started searching the fringes of the campsite for dead wood.

“I’ll keep an eye out for Grimm.” Pyrrha slid on her weapons with ease and started climbing a tree. “And see if I can spot the river nearby.”

Jaune watched his team as he gathered the firewood and prepared the fire they were going to use to cook their breakfast of apparently pancakes, although Nora might end up eating all or most of them. If she did and they were still hungry Ren would have bought other food, certainly. Or they could just find some birds or game out here and cook that. He knew how to prepare most animals in the wild like that. Pyrrha might put up a fight if she thought that whatever he came across was too cute to eat though.

Once the fire was at an appropriate level for cooking, Ren took over and started cooking pancakes that Nora had already mixed the batter for. Pyrrha was reclined in a nearby tree, watching over them with a relaxed smile and picking off the occasional wandering Grimm with her rifle.

“I got the syrup!” Nora held a glass jar full of sap triumphantly in the air. 

“This is nice. It feels great to be out in nature again.” Jaune sat by the fire and relaxed his guard just in time for Nora to pounce on him from behind in another hug.

“It’s great!” Nora’s arms draped themselves over his neck and she rested her chin against the top of his head. “Thanks for doing it.”

“You’ve been really cuddly lately.”

“I’m comfy with you and Pyrrha. It’s okay, right?” Nora made as if to let go, but Jaune put his hand over her arm, stopping her.

“It’s more than okay, I like it.” His gaze wandered to Ren. Come to think of it, with Nora occasionally clinging to him and Pyrrha as well, they might be getting less affection. “Hey Ren, is it cool if I hug you?”

“If you insist.” Ren didn’t look up from the pancakes they were cooking. 

Pyrrha hopped gracefully out of her tree and sheathed her weapon, walking over to join everyone for breakfast. “What makes you comfortable with us?”

Jaune left Nora’s embrace and hugged Ren much like Nora had hugged him, wrapping his arms around their neck, and resting his chin on their head. 

“You’re cool people.” Nora grinned. “You both passed the Nora Niceness Test, not that I actually have any concrete way of testing. I just like you.”

“Well, we like you too.” Jaune snatched a pancake from Ren’s growing stack and tossed it to Nora, who enthusiastically caught it in her teeth.

###### Pyrrha

After breakfast they went on a short hike to one of the many smaller rivers that fed into Vale’s large waterfalls and tributary. The water was clear and cool, but Pyrrha made sure that they waited until an hour after they’d eaten before changing into their swimsuits and going swimming. As a precaution, all of their weapons rested on the shore where they would easily reach them.

It was hard to avoid being distracted by just how very much muscle her teammates all had. Nora was beefy everywhere. _Everywhere._ Five feet of soft fat, hard muscle, and boundless energy, all very proudly visible in her pink, blue, and white one piece. Ren was lithely muscular all over their body, giving the impression of sleekness. Jaune was still in the process of building up most of the right muscle groups for swordfighting, but his shoulders had already been well defined when he’d started, and the twin scars on his chest made Pyrrha want to run her hands over them. In other words, she was so fucking bi.

“Hey Ren, bet you can’t catch me!” Nora used her arm to scoop up a massive wave of water and send it flying at Ren, then took off swimming upstream.

“I will have my revenge.” Ren spoke flatly, then took off after Nora, almost seeming to slide gracefully through the water as their entire body shimmered in the sunlight. 

“Don’t go too far!” Pyrrha shouted at Nora while she was above the water. “I think I saw a storm cloud on the horizon earlier!”

“Where?” Jaune peered around the sky. “The weather radar didn’t show any clouds around today.”

“Over there.” Pyrrha pointed to the east, where there was a faint black smudge against the otherwise clear sky. “It seems like it’s closer than it was at breakfast, but we probably have plenty of time before it reaches us, if it ever does.”

“Yeah.” Jaune squinted intensely at the cloud. “Something about that seems weird to me though.”

“Well,” Pyrrha took hold of Jaune’s hand, “you could worry about a cloud, or you could come swim with your beautiful team in a beautiful river.” 

“You are beautiful.” Jaune nodded, then blushed and started gesturing at the water. “I was talking to the river.”

“Right.” Pyrrha pushed him into the river to hide her smile. “I’m sorry!”

Jaune just laughed as he surfaced, bright rivulets of water streaming down his face. Pyrrha jumped in after him.

###### 

“I hear something.” Ren held their hand in the air, tilting their head. 

Everyone stopped swimming and looked around, searching for Grimm or other possible animals, and listening. Pyrrha couldn’t hear anything but the running of the river, but just in case, she started inching towards their weapons at the shore.

“It sounds like...” Ren scrunched up their face in concentration. “Honking?”

“Like a car?” Nora questioned.

“Like geese.”

“Everybody get your weapons and get out of the water!” Jaune shouted immediately, and started swimming back to where they had left their weapons. He almost seemed panicked.

“Do we really need to worry about geese?” Pyrrha nonetheless hurried after Jaune, rolling to grab her weapons and started looking around through the scope of her rifle.

Jaune’s expression turned grim as he hefted Coraca Mors. “Have you ever been within three yards of a goose before? Geese are more evil, more dangerous, and malicious than any Grimm.”

“Aren’t geese mostly white or gray though?” Nora asked, looking up at the sky.

“Yeah. Why?” Jaune began following Nora’s gaze. The honking was getting easy to hear, and it sounded like a lot of geese.

“What’s worse than the only thing worse than a Grimm?” Ren looked at the sky, their eyes wide.

“The cloud we saw was black, but it wasn’t a cloud, was it?” Pyrrha looked up to the sky with a dawning sense of dread. It wasn’t a cloud, it was a swarm of geese. Black Grimm geese with claws and beaks of white bone. She raised Miló and started sniping down as many of them as she could.

“We need to get back to camp and get the rest of our ammunition. Leave your clothes behind, we don’t have time to grab them.” Jaune threw his backpack over his shoulders. “Ren, you’re the fastest, go grab what you can, especially more of Nora’s grenades. Nora, start blowing them up as soon as they’re in range.”

Nora scrabbled at her clothes until she found her ammo belts, then hitched them around her waist. Once she was ready they started running through the forest, Ren breaking ahead of them as Pyrrha took a few potshots at the black forms that were slowly gaining on them as they weaved through the trees.

Everyone rushed into a small clearing at the same time, Ren carrying a bounty of the rest of Nora’s grenades and more ammo for themself and Pyrrha. The Grimm began to mass overhead only a few seconds later, just as Ren was tossing clips and belts of ammo to distribute it. Pyrrha caught it and kept working to thin their numbers, most shots taking down a goose, but it wasn’t nearly enough. There were dozens of them, an entire swarm.

There was a short moment in which a few stragglers caught up and joined with the ominous black cloud, broken only by brief flashes of sky visible between dark bodies and short flashes of pink created by Nora’s grenades, each one taking out five or six in their area of effect. It wasn’t going to be enough, they were going to swoop down and overwhelm them with numbers, as well as deadly claws.

“Form a square, facing them as they fly to us. Me and Pyrrha can be a shield wall while you shoot them.” Jaune’s voice was confident in his orders, as unshaking as it had been in the fight against the death stalker. Pyrrha realized that she might be turned on by how he somehow managed to be so calm and calculating when they were all about to possibly die.

It was a good strategy, and everyone hurried to take their spots, but it wasn’t going to be enough. Even as Nora and Ren quickly killed more with weapons effective against swarms, they could almost certainly get past the two person shield wall with ease, assuming that they attacked head-on, which such simple Grimm probably would.

The seething mass of black, red, and white peaked, flying up, then diving down, curving through their fall to enter a high-speed dive directed at Jaune and Pyrrha in a storm of claws and hatred. Then, just before they met the shield wall, something appeared in the corner of Pyrrha’s sight and rushed to a place just between her and Jaune, a blur of movement that she could only describe as something green.

The indistinct figure took a place between her and Jaune and parted the mass of Grimm that flew towards them like a wave, moving too quickly to be seen. The numbers of the Grimm were cut in half, and those that passed the mysterious figure were still many, but enough that the four members of team JNPR could handle them with gunfire and flashing weapons in a battle that felt like it could have lasted hours, but probably took less than a minute, due to the terminal, reckless, hate-filled speed with which the geese flew to their deaths.

As the last few stragglers that had initially escaped death bagan to circle around for a second assault, Pyrrha took the liberty of picking them off at long range, using up the rest of her ammo. Even she was a little bit winded as she drove Miló into the ground and rested her body against it’s handle.

“That went pretty well, considering.” Jaune wiped some sweat from his brow as he squinted at the person who had come to their rescue, then immediately panicked. “Professor! You’re... uh, here!”

“Yes, well,” Professor Ozpin smiled benevolently at them, “I could hardly let some of my most promising students be killed, now could I?”

“It’s the fuzz!” Nora exclaimed the obvious, her voice panicked. “Run away!”

“There is no need for that Miss Valkerie, I am not here to punish you for breaking the school’s rules. As a matter of fact, it would be in both of our best interests if neither Glynda nor any other member of the faculty were to hear of this.” Ozpin coughed gently into his hand. He looked almost embarrassed.

“Really?” Jaune blinked, surprised.

“Of course, I do recommend that you end your trip here, before something goes wrong without my assistance, but I will not insist that you do so. I am simply glad to see that all of you are both enjoying your time here at Beacon and learning valuable life lessons.”

“In other words, you’re a big softie!” Nora practically jumped on top of Ozin with a hug. “Thanks Professor!”

“Your teaching philosophy is unique.” Ren offered Ozpin a much more subdued handshake. “I appreciate your indulgence.”

“I have made more mistakes than any other man, woman, or child on Remnant. I find it easy to forgive, though don’t think that I won’t be letting all of you off without a strict lecture in self-preservation.” Ozpin smiled indulgently. “That, however, can be given somewhere other than a forest filled with Grimm.”

“Thanks a lot Professor.” Jaune grinned and shook Ozpin’s hand as well. “I’m pretty sure we’re going to keep camping, assuming everyone wants to.” He checked his team's reactions and was met with nothing but encouragement. “Yeah, we’re staying out here until tomorrow evening.”

“Very well.” Ozpin sighed good-naturedly. “Though let it be known that I did warn you.”

“Making bad decisions is what being young is all about, old man.” Nora smiled proudly as she began to dismissively wave him off.

“And protecting the young from the more fatal consequences of their poor decisions until they learn better is the burden of the old.” Ozpin winked, then began to stroll into the forest, his gratuitous reliance on his cane the only sign that the fight had tired him.


	38. Caught In A Web

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, I have no idea why this took so long
> 
> holy shit I've been writing this story for seven months

The bird flitted anxiously through the forest, guiding the companions beneath her as best she could from her aerial vantage, but it wasn’t enough. The Ouroboros was no longer content to consume itself, it’s anger had been diverted to the world around it, and with that anger, a desire to consume further, to destroy everything in its reach. She couldn’t let that happen.

Yet even as they fled the forest twisted around them in strange ways, doubling back on itself and leading them to dead ends that made their map and compass worthless. It felt as if every tree and every shadow in the vicinity was closing in on them. Or... no, not every shadow, but any shadow.

The spawn of Pterolycus below her had found a scent with her sharp lupine nose, but that scent twisted just as strangely as the forest, suddenly becoming newer or older in a continuous trail without being the scent of one who had lingered. Nothing in the world was as it should be, and the bird’s dread only continued to grow, as did her fear for the four travelers below her.

Deeper and deeper they traveled, the most cunning among them drawing near to some unknown conclusion even as other creatures around them were picked off one by one, vanishing into the shadows. The bird couldn’t follow the intense conversation beneath her, but she could guide her friends to the next patch of light in the deepening night, the next momentary glimpse of safety.

Just as the spawn began to speak excitedly about herbs, seeming to have solved the riddle before them, she abruptly vanished into the darkness. The last thing the bird heard was the angry yowl of a great beast, and the panicked yip of another, smaller creature joining with her own anguished song.

###### Yang

“Uggggh.” Yang groaned as she regained consciousness. Her entire body was stiff, and she had a throbbing headache that was either a hangover or a side effect of whatever semblance had hit her before. She winced as she tried to open her eyes, the sun shining directly into them. “What the fuck?” 

“We were captured.” Qrow’s voice was no more gruff than usual, which meant it was probably a hangover.

“If you’re awake why are we still captured?” They were tied to each other with thick, tightly bound rope, and then stuck into an iron cage, somewhere out in the Mistral wilderness. At least they hadn’t felt the need to bind her wings, whoever they were. Not that she could do all that much with them. Still, Qrow should be able to turn into a bird and the ropes would fall away. 

“I can’t do what you’re thinking I can. These aren’t normal ropes, and I’m pretty sure we’re being watched.” 

It didn’t seem like they were being watched. There were just a bunch of trees around, but Qrow probably knew best.

“Aura-suppressing?” Yang squinted down and tried flaring her aura a little. It felt like it was there. “Is that even a thing?”

“Worse. Trust me, don’t try forcing your way out of them, especially with your semblance.” 

“Okay.” Yang nodded, just for show, then pushed against the rope a little, letting her aura absorb the force as it dug into her skin and fed her semblance a small flicker of energy. She pushed harder and drew on her semblance, making a feedback loop of the resistance from the ropes making her push against them even harder by powering her semblance. Then her entire body burned with pain as her muscles started spasming uncontrollably, as if she was being electrocuted. For obvious reasons, she screamed.

“Yang,” Qrow said once she was no longer writhing in pain, and she could just hear the sigh he was repressing, “I just told you not to do that.”

“In my defense, I thought that you only said that because we were being watched, and you actually wanted me to do the opposite. What the fuck just happened with this rope anyway?” 

“It’s enchanted. If you try to get out, it’ll resist.”

“It’s... what? But, magic isn’t a thing, outside of the you-know-what’s and you-know-who. Enchanted would mean with magic, wouldn’t it?” Yang tried to look around and try to see if Qrow was messing with her, but she didn’t really want to stare at the back of his head.

“Yes and no.” Qrow sighed heavily this time. “If you define magic as anything that changes how the world as most people know it works, it’s everywhere. Technically, however, magic is a specific kind of arcana, but there’s also sorcery, which is directly related to the supernatural.”

“What?”

“Magic is like art. Anyone who has some paint and a canvas can try it out, no matter how little finesse or experience they have, and they’ll accomplish something along the lines of what they were trying to do. The paint in this metaphor being raw magical power. There’s also sorcery, however, which is like vector calculus, except worse. It’s an exploitation of the way that the world already works to suit the purpose of the person who’s doing it. It takes a long time to do, has specific rules, and if you screw it up there are usually consequences.” 

“Okay, I see. I guess that makes sense in a way. How does enchanting work?”

“Enchanting is the act of imbuing an inanimate object with a portion or all of someone’s aura, and forcing it to perform a task until the object is destroyed. Essentially, it’s using a soul as a power source instead of magical power.” Qrow’s voice was a low, angry growl.

“Oh, oh that’s fucked up.” Yang looked down at the ropes binding her in disgust. “So then we should destroy these when we get out, right? That’d release the soul?”

“Well, yes, but it’ll probably take more than just cutting them with a knife. We’ll have to take the ropes with us, and if we can anything else these people may have that’s enchanted.” 

“Bold of you to assume that you will escape after singing such praises of my employer’s gift.” Gregora’s voice was unaccompanied by any other hint of her presence, coming from somewhere behind Yang. She must be a skilled forester. “Allow us to introduce ourselves properly. Gregora Rasputin and Roidon Romanovich Raskolnikov, mercenaries for hire.”

“Charmed, I’m sure.” Qrow replied dryly. “What kind of dumbass mercs introduce themselves, anyways?”

“Notoriety is good for business. As for what kind of mercenaries we are... well, we are of a kind skilled enough to capture the even more notorious Qrow Branwen and his niece, and the latter is just as welcome as she is unexpected. After all, I am sure that threatening her with pain will be far more efficient than dealing with you directly.”

“Don’t you fucking dare.” Qrow growled. Yang could feel his shoulders tense futilely.

“Or what? You will cut off my head?” Gregora taunted, laughing cruelly.

“Hey, don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.” Yang couldn’t quite keep her voice from wavering slightly, even as she tried to be reassuring.

“No, you won’t be.” Qrow said, resigned. “What do you want?”

“Give us a secure scroll number with which to call your Headmaster Ozpin. We will contact him and inform him that he is to meet with our employer in Mistral. Once he does so, you will both be released.” Well, as far as evil plans go, it could have been worse.

“Fine.” Qrow told Gregora a scroll number.

“All we need from you is your image.” There was the sound of a scroll ringing, followed by an answering tone.

“Ozpin speaking. May I ask who you are and how you got this number?” A moment passed before Ozpin spoke again, his voice much more strained this time. “I see. You have my attention.”

“Good. All you have to do to get these two back is meet with my employer in Mistral two days from now at precisely noon. Alone. I have texted you the address.”

“And once I have done this?”

“My job is to release your people once my own personal sources confirm that you have attended this meeting. I will release my hostages regardless of the outcome.” Gregora sounded almost cordial, if not for the fact that she had admitted to having hostages.

“Your employer being...?”

A sound in between a laugh and a snort filled the clearing. “People who pay well enough that I don’t give a shit about their identity. It’s nothing personal, you see. Simply business.”

“Business.” Ozpin’s voice was as dry as Yang had ever heard it, and barely on the verge of being threatening. “I can understand kidnapping my man, but the one behind him?”

“His niece just happened to be there. Call it good fortune.” It felt like there was some sort of cruel joke Yang didn’t understand passing between Gregora and everyone else in earshot.

“I see.” Oz was definitely angry, and Yang couldn’t help but wonder if it was at the situation or at her. Getting captured like this was probably something he had been worried about when he was reluctant to let her leave Beacon. Would he make her come back if-when they got out?

Gregora abruptly hung up, then tossed something between the bars of the cage. “Here is your food for the next few days. The ropes should be loose enough to let you eat it, as long as you have not oh so foolishly attempted to escape them.”

“Great.” Qrow deadpanned. “Are you going to leave now, or did you plan on torturing us for fun first?”

“As I have said, I am a professional. I have no intention to harm you so long as you comply, and if anything, my semblance has made me a masochist, not a sadist.” Gregora chuckled menacingly one last time as she left, plunging Yang and Qrow back into silence.

“So... now what?” Yang was starting to get sore from having her wings in a relatively small space, even if they weren’t tied.

“Now we wait for my semblance to create an opportunity for us to get out of here.” Qrow grumbled. “Don’t get your hopes up though, it’s good for much of anything in the first place.”

“What is your semblance, anyway?”

“Misfortune.”

If her hands were free, Yang would have punched her uncle. “You dumbass.”

“I know, I know, it’s my fault we’re in this situation to begin with.”

“You absolute, complete fucking idiot. Don’t you dare blame yourself for everything around you that goes wrong.”

“Yang...”

“No. I’m not going to listen to you sit here and tell me that you’ve spent years feeling sorry for yourself, being a grumpy, perpetually five-o-clock shadowed old drunk, burying yourself in work, and avoiding your family because you think everything is somehow your fault. First of all, you deserve a hell of a lot better than that, and you know a hell of a lot better than that. You’re not responsible for everything bad that happens just because you were there.” 

“I am.” Qrow’s voice was flat, tired.

“No, you aren’t you stubborn brother slash uncle of a bitch.” Yang scolded back.

“All that happens when I stick around someone for too long is that they get hurt. Why the hell do you think Ruby lost her arm? She didn’t even get hurt by the beowolf, she just scraped her arm on the ground, and ended up getting some essence in it. She would have been fine if it weren’t for my semblance.”

“We’re hunters in training, even if she was young then. Shit happens, and you don’t even have any proof that that was your fault on any level other than that it was pretty irresponsible of you. Besides, Ruby loves her prosthetic. You do realize that she’s talked to me about someday getting some more limbs amputated and replaced with her own designs, right?” 

“That doesn’t change anything. I can’t control it, and all it’s going to do is hurt anyone in my vicinity. As evidenced by our current situation.” 

Yang really, really, wished they weren’t tied up back-to-back so she could glare at him. That would be gratifying. “No. As a matter of fact, we were captured because we got ambushed by someone with a really weird semblance who was already hunting you. None of this has anything to do with luck, and your semblance couldn’t possibly affect the world on a scale like that.”

“I hate it when you’re right.”

“Not as much as you hate yourself though, huh?” Yang stopped scolding him, her voice softening. “Man, we’re all idiots, huh? The whole Branwen family. Actually, wait... ah fuck, we’re both dumbasses.”

“Not Raven?”

“Not today. You should have just let them torture me.”

“I thought I already made it obvious that that isn’t something I’m going to let happen.”

“No, that’s not what I mean. If they wanted to torture me they would have had to break my aura first, meaning...” Raven would have noticed something was wrong. They only got captured in the first place because it was done by knocking them unconscious through their auras.

There was a heavy thunk as Qrow slammed his head against the pole they were tied to, though his aura absorbed the blow. “You’re right, we are dumbasses. I wonder if this means their mysterious employer knew you needed to be taken out with aura intact, even if your presence was ostensibly accidental.”

“It wouldn't make sense to capture us to get to Ozpin and then do nothing with us. I’ll think that it was an accident if they really do let us go when the meeting happens.” Everything about the situation seemed strange. “I guess I’ll try breaking my aura by slamming my head against this pole until something better comes up.”

“Doesn’t sound like it’ll work. You’re too damn hardheaded for something like that to hurt you.”

“Very funny old man. Would you like to try instead?”

“She wouldn’t lift a finger for me, even if she probably does still have the connection.”

“She wouldn’t?” Yang frowned. She liked to think that her mom and uncle still cared about one another, but sometimes they made her wonder. 

“She hasn’t before.”

“Maybe she just has more faith in your ability to take care of yourself, and is slightly less protective?”

“Maybe.” Qrow sounded unconvinced. “Either way, if we do that, you still don’t have a plan to deal with that woman’s semblance.”

“That’s easy. We can just use the secret Branwen family technique.”

“We have a secret family technique?”

“Obviously.” Yang snorted. “Come on, it’s sort of a running theme for us.”

“Oh, _that_ secret technique.” Qrow snorted back as he got the hint. “You’re not wrong. If we get out, you do that while I handle our friends.”

“You can handle them?”

"Yes, now that there aren't any civilians in the area."

###### Coco

Coco always hated it when someone knocked meekly on her door. Not because she had anything against shy people, but because there were incredibly few reasons why someone would knock that way, beyond being shy. All of them were bad, and being in an academy of prospective hunters meant that no one she knew was shy enough to actually knock so gently under ordinary circumstances.

“What is it?” She opened the door with a scowl that only intensified as she saw Ruby cowering nervously on the other side of the threshold.

“Is Yatsu here?” Ruby peered past Coco into the dorm room, but nothing in there was visibly amiss. “Oh, uh... is this a bad time? I could come back later.” She was on the verge of backing out.

“No, it’s not a bad time for us. But if you’re here for the reason I suspect, keep in mind that you’re _very_ close to having a bad time of your own.” Really, Ruby should know better.

“I’m sorry. I know it’s selfish of me.” Ruby hung her head. “I just...”

Coco shook her head, still scowling, though she tried to soften her tone to give a slightly gentler chastising. “No, don’t tell it to me, and don’t let me scare you away. Yatsu’s a big boy, he can make his own decisions.”

“Right.” Ruby took a deep breath before coming into the room and grabbing Yatsu’s attention.

Normally, Coco would turn away anyone who came knocking on her door because they had heard something about Yatsu’s semblance. Ruby, however, she had more reason than anyone else to be pissed with, and yet she couldn’t help feeling sympathetic. Ruby should know better than to ask Yatsu to use his semblance on her, but Coco had seen the fear in her eyes when she had mentioned how she wasn’t comfortable being touched anymore. Sometimes she was just too damn sympathetic.

After all, she’d tried to forget too.

Yatsu would refuse, she already knew that he would, but it would do Ruby good to hear it from the man himself.

“Uh, hi Yatsu.” Ruby was slightly less nervous, hesitating more out of guilt than fear.

“Good afternoon.” Yatsu nodded in Ruby’s direction as he continued to oil Fulcrum’s blade. Coco didn’t miss the subtle tension that had built in his shoulders, but she refrained from acting on it.

“So,” Ruby took a deep breath, her shoulders slumping as she exhaled, “I know it’s probably pretty selfish of me to ask, but... could you use your semblance on me? Temporarily, a little bit. Not like... you know, just for a few minutes.”

There was a long silence as Yatsu put aside his weapon, not making a sound in the process. “May I assume that you want to forget something traumatic?”

“Yeah.” Ruby’s gaze was more averted than it usually was when she was talking to someone, her wings pulled in tight against her back.

“I won’t do you the insult of saying that it’s best to deal with this in an ordinary fashion. It is an injustice that whatever you struggle with has occurred at all, and I would do anything in my power to help you. However, there is nothing I can do that would present more opportunity for your growth than it does to severely hurt you.” Yatsu’s speech wasn’t even the rehearsed one he usually gave. It made sense, the team liked team RWBY, they were a good bunch. Potentially some of the best, some day. “The mind is a delicate thing, and for a traumatic incident, the way that it continues to affect your thoughts as more time passes causes it to become a very important part of your memory. In order to forget it, you would also have to forget every thought process that has been influenced by this event, and to do that would require such effort that I would run the risk of inflicting a permanent change, even if my intention was only to cause a temporary one.”

“Okay.” Ruby swallowed thickly. “Thanks for telling me. I sort of figured you’d say something like that, sorry.”

“Sometimes it’s not about knowing something, it’s about hearing it.” Coco saw fit to insert herself back into the conversation. Yatsu had probably spoken enough for the rest of the day with his heartfelt monologue. “Any other reason why you came here though?”

“Mostly... I just keep wanting to be able to kiss Weiss and Blake.” Ruby sighed, crashing back into Coco’s bed. 

“A truly noble and selfless desire.” Coco smirked. Just because she liked the kid didn’t mean she wasn’t going to tease. “I can only assume that you’re here to get some practice in.”

Ruby hid her face in the pillows, her wings fluttering as Coco resisted the urge to laugh. “I just mean like, you’re older than and wise in the ways of the world. So, uh, any advice for not being freaked out about it?”

Coco sighed. “For me, what mattered was that I faced my trauma. No matter how long you spend trying to ignore, it’s going to get triggered. And even once you think you’ve made some sort of peace with it, it’s still going to be there, and it’s still going to get triggered sometimes. But since I stopped trying to forget, it’s affected me a lot less actively, and I’ve been able to do pretty much everything it used to scare me away from as long as I’m in a good headspace.”

“How do you even do that?”

“I ended up confronting the man I couldn’t forgive, and I saw that he wasn’t even worth hating for what he had done. He was just a fake.” 

“A fake what?” 

“Everything.” Coco shrugged. “Those details aren’t what’s important here.”

Ruby turned around and peered at Coco curiously, but didn’t press it. “But I do forgive her.”

“Do you?” Coco raised an eyebrow. Ruby struck her as the type to repress any negative feelings towards Yang just because they were close.

“Consciously, anyway.” Ruby shrugged. “She’s not a bad person, and that isn’t changed.”

“It’s not a question of who she is, it’s a question of what happened. Regardless of who did it, it happened, and you have a right to be pissed off.”

“It’s really not what happened that bothers me all that much. It’s just how messed up I am now.”

With that, Coco realized that she had accidentally talked Ruby into an impromptu group therapy session between two people, and that she now felt obligated to untie as much of this knot of fallacy as she could reasonably be expected to help with, for no reason other than that she liked Ruby. 

Fuck.

###### Daisy

With Raven no longer running away, things were settling into a comfortable routine. Summer and Tai were far more relaxed, even if they were exceedingly saccharine with Raven, to the point that it sometimes felt as if Daisy wasn’t even there. Still, she didn’t mind that much. Even with the clan, she’d been an outsider at first, always was to some of them, this was just a family instead of a clan, even if Yang and Summer had tried to be welcoming. Yang didn’t live here, and Summer was distracted by her angst and subsequent budding relationship with Raven.

Every day, Daisy helped Summer take care of her garden, mostly by weeding and watering the relatively small area. Both of them moved slowly and silently, the caretaking more a personal ritual than a chore. She enjoyed being able to stay in one place, after spending so much time on the move and hiding.

“Why don’t you stay for tea before you raid the library again?” Summer washed the dirt from her hands with a hose as she asked.

“Well, I...” Daisy tried to think of a reason why she couldn’t, and came up utterly empty, trailing off.

“I might not have made it very clear to you, what with all the chaos around your arrival and in general, but you’re just as welcome here as Raven is.” Summer took a moment to dry her hands before she turned to watch Daisy intensely. “In fact, you just give the word and I’ll adopt you.”

“Actually, I’m an adult. And I’m pretty sure that I’m technically a fugitive, even if only from Ozpin.” Daisy focused intently on her hands, taking longer than necessary to clean the dirt from under her fingernails. Summer could be scary sometimes.

“Not legally, silly.” Summer dismissively flapped her hand in Daisy’s direction. “Just in spirit. It’s better than having an empty nest.”

“Well, thanks I guess but... I’d still rather not.” Daisy slumped into a chair as a wave of melancholy overtook her. “I’ve already had to leave a family behind twice.”

“I see. I’ll go get the tea.” Summer was subdued as well as she rushed off, giving Daisy a moment of peace.

Ozpin had once told her that Maidens choose themselves, but that was obviously not true. If it was she could have just stayed home, completely oblivious to the war going on around her. It still felt like she was being lazy to not fight, in a way. There was a war where one side wanted to destroy the world, of course she was obligated to help if she could. And she could, if she tried.

“You know, you don’t have to be here. You could go almost anywhere.” Summer jolted Daisy form her thoughts, dearing a tea tray.

“I’m just glad to have a permanent place to live. It’s peaceful here, which is more than I can say about the clan.” Daisy forced a smile. Not even her girlfriends had really understood why she didn’t want to fight. They’d been at home there and she hadn’t, something that had strained their relationship at times.

“But you aren’t happy here.” Summer saw right through her efforts at deflecting, empath that she was. 

“I wouldn’t be happy anywhere.” Daisy shrugged. “It’s enough to just have some peace and quiet, and access to books again.” Books are dead weight to nomadic bandits.

“Well, that’s no good.” Summer spoke gently from behind her cup, her voice laced with sympathy. “Wasn’t there something you wanted to do before you became a Maiden? If you could have done anything at all?”

It seemed like a reasonable enough question, but it was enough to prompt a brief, bitter laugh from Daisy. “You know, you’re the first person in more than a decade to ask me anything about my old life.” That had been the first reason among why she’d come to respect Raven, eventually. She stared down into her tea, thinking back, trying to remember what it was like to be young and innocent. “It doesn’t matter though. My life still can’t go back to normal. Even if one side were to win definitively, they’d still want me for my power.”

“That’s true, but Salem doesn’t know your name or your face, and Ozpin can’t know everything. I know he tends to act like he does, but just the fact that you’re here means that he’s fallible. It should be possible to slip away to a small settlement and build a life of your own.”

“Probably...” Daisy thought as she sipped her tea. She hadn’t considered doing something like that before, but... “But I wouldn’t feel safe. I’d always be looking over my shoulder, hiding my past. I don’t want to live like that either.”

“You’re still young. You have time to figure out how you do want to live your life, and as long as you’re in this house no one’ll try to push you into anything you aren’t comfortable with, or I’ll stab them.” Summer winked playfully, and Daisy wasn’t entirely sure whether she was serious. “That said, do you think being able to protect yourself might help you feel safer?”

“I guess.” There’s probably some degree of consolation in being able to fight, even if Daisy didn’t want to. “I never practiced magic with the bandits because I needed to keep my powers secret, and attacking someone with a weapon is just... it feels wrong to me. Under any circumstances, no sparring either.”

“Well, if you ever want to go for a pleasant stroll through the woods, you should know that there are a few Grimm around, though not many, and they tend to be weak enough for most young students to handle.” Summer smiled coyly. “A nice midnight stroll was always good training for Ruby, back in the day.”

“I’ll... keep that in mind.” Daisy nodded. Fighting just wasn’t the way she wanted to solve problems, but if she did end up deciding to practice, well, practicing on Grimm would be helpful for the island as a whole. “I don’t know. Maybe. I’m really not a fighter, I just got unlucky with all this.”

“Sometimes I wonder just how random all of this truly is.” Summer rested her chin on her hand, looking out over the small garden. “True randomness isn’t real, in a sense. For a person the subconscious mind is always going to influence things like that, and computers can’t be truly random either, they just fake it. If magic responds to what people want to happen, I kind of wonder if it might pass on the way it does for a reason beyond chance.”

“What, like destiny?” Daisy tried not to roll her eyes. If her life was normal she might be able to buy into something like that, but she had rejected this power for years, what kind of meaningless destiny would that be?

“More like Choice. Ozpin always liked to say that Maidens choose themselves. Did you ever meet Fria, the Winter Maiden?” Daisy just shook her head in response. “I did, once. She was incredibly noble, and very powerful. Rumor was that when she realized she had magic the first thing she did was fly up to Atlas and burst into General Sky’s office, demanding that she be accelerated into an Atlas Academy first year class. She was only fifteen at the time.” Summer snickered. “If Qrow ever tries to pull the same thing on James but with violence, Tai’s gonna owe Rae and me big money.”

“That’s... interesting.” It was certainly one way to join the army. “I don’t know about Maidens choosing themselves though, the idea of there being some sort of purpose or order to Maidens who inherit randomly doesn’t make sense. Not when I have no intention of using these powers. And if there is some deliberate force at work, that would probably mean that I’m just here to be a temporary vessel until someone comes and kills me for the magic, I would never accept that as being right.”

“Neither would I.” Summer’s expression darkened into one of anger. “Especially not when it endangers my babies.”

“Babies, plural?”

“My daughter and my granddaughter.”

Daisy violently spat out her tea. “Ruby has a daughter? I mean, she looked pretty young before, but I guess not that young if she’s at Beacon, but...”

“Crescent Rose, her weapon. Obviously.” Summer scoffed good naturedly.

“Oh. Right. Obviously.” Daisy intoned flatly. Was Summer just that eccentric, or did she just really like messing with people, or both?


	39. Undead Traits

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ayyy, it only took me a week to write this

“The Kingdoms are retreating, hoarding their artifacts in a mad rush to maintain their power as life itself slowly recedes from the land and its people. They all fear the vanishing of the Gods, and the shattering of the moon, though their theories of what exactly has caused humanity to be abandoned are as vacuous as their machinations. 

While I fear the outcome of the Necromancer’s march, I doubt that she won her vindictive battle, if only because she has not yet been sighted, either by her presence or her Shadow. Though her beasts have become more ubiquitous, they have begun to act wildly and disparately, as if no longer guided by a force of intelligence.

I have personally scoured the ancient Land of the Gods, but nothing is to be found there. Not the slightest clue remains on this planet, which has led me to the conclusion that I must investigate the moon itself, aboard what was meant to be the greatest vessel known to mankind. The Rocinante is still incomplete, but now I fear she never will be, and should I dally too long even what precious progress I have made will fade away with the rest of the world as we know it. 

I have the means for a single trip, from which I expect I will never return. I will take it, and seek the truth, gambling my life on the chance that perhaps, if fortune shines down on me, there will be some secret to be discovered, and my sacrifice may allow me to share with the world aught of what has befallen it.”

- **Final journal entry of Selene, The Guiding Light, Captain of the Calypso, and Grandmaster Explorer of Luminaea, a name forever lost to the ravages of time**

###### Weiss

Weiss plunged Myrtenaster’s tip into the ground, creating a time dilation glyph beneath Blake’s feet as xe began to delicately accelerate her thoughts using the combination of lightning dust and xyr semblance. The process was, as xe had explained, extremely delicate, and would require a great deal of trial and error before xe could figure out how to do it to Blake. Until then, the failed attempts were very liable to leave behind worrying but temporary side effects. 

Fortunately, Blake would have Weiss and Ruby there to help her through them, which was more than Weiss had had when xe was learning to use the glyph on xyrself.

Weiss quickly cut the connection as instinct told xyr that xe had stimulated the wrong part of Blake’s mind, quickly sheathing xyr weapon and moving to check on xyr girlfriend. “How do you feel?”

“Normal, actually.” Blake looked around the training area and shrugged. “I don’t think I’m experiencing any of those side effects you mentioned?”

“Really?” Weiss was reasonably sure that such a thing would manifest itself immediately after an error, but it could be something that was simply less noticeable, such as paranoia.

“How long do these side effects usually take to go away?” Ruby asked the question far more sedately than she had taken the news about side effects the other day. 

“Five minutes at most, during my time learning to use it on myself. My greater general mastery of my semblance likely reduces that to some degree.”

“Alright, we’ll try again every seven and a half minutes until we get it right.” Ruby turned to Blake. “And if you need a hug you’ll get one.”

“I mean, I still feel fine.” Blake shrugged again. “I guess I don’t know what being paranoid or losing my short term memory feels like, but this probably isn’t it?”

“Short term memory loss constitutes the loss of ability to create new memories. Paranoia is... well, when I was learning this I already knew father was a threat to my well being regardless of any altered mental state.” Weiss shuddered involuntarily, and Blake immediately wrapped an arm around xyr shoulders.

“This is rather public.” Weiss looked around warily, half expecting to see Cardin Winchester lurking in the eaves of the nearby dormitories.

“Don’t worry, it’s just a hug, and you really obviously need it.” Blake turned the half embrace into a hug that gradually leeched the tension from Weiss’ shoulders. “There, see?”

“When you were training on yourself,” Ruby took Weiss’ hand for herself as she focused them back on the training they were undergoing, “did you ever fail without any side effects?”

“No, there was always something, though usually I just tried again immediately without waiting for it to subside.” Weiss shook xyr head. “I can’t imagine why Blake would be unaffected.”

“Maybe I just have undead traits.” Blake mused, making Ruby perk up excitedly.

“Ooo, we need to test that.” Ruby rubbed her hands together gleefully.

“Undead traits?” Weiss hitched an eyebrow at xyr girlfriends, completely out of the loop.

“Sixty foot darkvision, immunity to all mind affecting effects, immunity to death effects, disease, paralysis, poison, sleep effects, and stunning, immunity to nonlethal damage, ability drain, energy drain, exhaustion, and fatigue. Immunity to any effect that requires a fortitude save, unless it is harmless or can affect objects.” Blake listed, reciting perfectly from memory. “Also, doesn’t eat, sleep, or breathe. I’m pretty sure I’ve got those last three.”

“That you don’t strictly need to breathe actually explains a great deal about our sex life.” Weiss muttered, blushing.

“Don’t worry, I’d let you suffocate me between your thighs even if I did need to breathe.” Blake stuck out her tongue suggestively as Ruby blushed from sheer proximity.

“Ah-hem.” Ruby coughed into her hand to get the conversation back on track. “How am I the most responsible person here? Anyway, we’ll try it nine more times with five minute breaks and if you still don’t have any problems we’ll proceed under the assumption that you aren’t being negatively affected by it at all. Also, we should ask Professor Peach to see if you’re immune to poison later, because that would be dope.”

“Actually, maybe we should just scrap this idea. If I’m immune to the negative effects, I might be immune to the positive ones as well.” Blake frowned, uncertain.

“This technique affects your brain chemistry, and from the errors I’ve been making I can tell that I’m doing something, even though it isn’t successful or having an effect. It’s possible that these effects are being prevented because of some metaphysical aspect of your nature, and if it is metaphysical it may be able to distinguish between positive and negative changes.” Weiss therorized. “We’ll be able to tell whether it is successful once I am able to succeed, and shouldn’t make assumptions until then. ” 

“Am I going to need to study metaphysics at some point because of all this supernatural stuff? I really don’t want to study metaphysics.” Ruby grimaced, shook her head, and checked the time on her scroll. “Anyway, it’s been five minutes, so go ahead and try again.”

Weiss continued refining time dilation for use on Blake, eventually determining that she was indeed immune to any consequences of xyr failure. With that, the only limitation on how quickly xe could practice was xyr own aura and supply of lightning dust, and it only took another two hours of attempts to finally reach the point where xe could apply time dilation to Blake quickly and accurately.

“There.” Weiss released xyr semblance with a smirk, proud of how quickly xe had managed to make the glyph work properly on Blake. “How do you feel now?”

“Fast as fuck.” Blake drew Gambol Shroud more quickly than Weiss could even follow, even more quickly than she moved when they were practicing indoors with the full use of her vampiric strength. In what seemed like a few steps Blake crossed the distance between herself and Ruby and placed her blade at Ruby’s throat, their leader barely able to raise Crescent Rose in time to respond.

“Well, that far outclasses anything I could possibly do myself while using that glyph.” Weiss understated. “Strange. That magnitude of improvement should be impossible for an ordinary person. Time dilation accelerates the mind, but not the body.”

“Maybe Blake’s body was already this agile, but without this she can’t think quickly enough to keep up with it?” Ruby gently pushed the sword away from her as her brow furrowed cutely and she started mumbling to herself. “Although that wouldn’t explain the disparity between her maximum performance in sunlight versus out of sunlight and why this would work in sunlight at all since sunlight should be weakening her physically just as much as it would mentally.”

“Maybe vampires are just bullshit?” Blake posited, then winced, holding her head in her hands. “Fuck. I’m going to go sit in the shade for a bit. I fucking hate the sun, this is too damn much exposure.”

“You should have said something Blake, we could have gone back indoors before you started being in pain.” Weiss frowned.

“No, it wasn’t that bad a few moments ago. That speed boost wearing off seemed to make it a bit worse all at once.” Blake sighed as she sat with her back against a tree, her eyes closed.

“It got worse because of your temporarily enhanced perception?” Ruby snapped her fingers and pointed triumphantly at Blake. “That’s it! It’s just a placebo effect! Sunlight doesn’t actually make you weaker, it’s just that your vision is so good it overstimulates you, and then you get weaker overall because you expect to! With the only thing holding you back being your own mind, you’re stronger than ever when Weiss buffs your brain!” 

That was a strange way to describe time dilation, but the theory sounded surprisingly... sound. Weiss was immediately thankful that xe had neglected to voice that thought.

“Maybe...” Blake groaned, her ears pinned against the back of her head. “But could we discuss this indoors now that we’re done training?”

“Yes, lets.” Weiss didn’t complain as Blake clung to xyr, leaning heavily against xyr with her eyes squeezed shut as they walked back indoors, finally letting loose a heavy sigh and letting go of Weiss as she straightened up.

“Maybe you should get a parasol and some sunglasses.” Ruby offered as they walked back to their dorm room to discuss everything in further detail.

“Sunglasses maybe, but not only are parasols bougie, but there is also that one time that I was almost beaten to death with one.” Blake scowled at the memory, and Weiss winced. That hadn’t been pleasant to experience, even if only by seeing Blake’s resultant hospitalization.

###### Blake

Blake liked holding Weiss. There was usually a brief moment of reluctant caution in which xe checked xyr surroundings, but those moments kept getting shorter and less frequent with each day that passed. Then, xe would relax into her arms, and if not occupied with anything else, look up at her with an expression only she and Ruby ever got to see. A soft, adoring blue gaze that Blake could tell meant she was fulfilling something Weiss rarely spoke of, xyr need to feel safe.

That peaceful intimacy was among the best parts of her day, alongside other times spent with Weiss and Ruby. It still felt strange sometimes, that she was in a wonderful relationship with two incredible people in what sometimes still felt like the aftermath of something that had most certainly _not_ been a good relationship. But it was good, it kept her from having to think too much about the White Fang and everyone still associated with it.

At the moment, holding Weiss and inhaling xyr scent was also doing wonders to soothe her residual sun-induced headache while Ruby watched them with a smile on her face.

“Come closer and hold my hand?” Blake had cracked open an eye to watch Ruby’s enjoyment of the scene, but it would be nice for her other girlfriend to join them.

“Nah, I’m pretty happy just watching you two be like that.” Ruby rested her face between her hands and beamed openly at them. “It’s a nice feeling, even if I am a little jealous.”

“What kind of jealous?” Blake turned her attention more fully to Ruby, concerned.

“Not relationship-jealous, just... jealous that you’re comfortable with those things and I wouldn’t be.” Ruby smiled, a little quirk of her mouth that was all the more genuine for the sliver of pain embedded in it. “I want to cuddle with you both someday.”

“Someday.” Blake smiled back, her heart aching even though there really wasn’t anything she could do.

“Yeah...” Ruby had a faraway look in her eyes for a moment, only to snap out of it with a squaring of her shoulders. “So, anyway, about vampire stuff. Sun being a placebo and all that.”

“That theory doesn’t quite sit right with me. It does seem to explain the difference in my physical abilities, but I also can’t make my advanced shadow clones when I’m in direct sunlight.” Blake was a little bit relieved that Ruby had changed the subject, happy to let discussions of trauma wait for another day.

“Well, they are _shadow_ clones, maybe it’s just too bright out, and there are too few shadows?” Ruy was pretty good at this sort of thing, huh?

“Huh. Maybe? I don’t make shadow clones out of other shadows though, I just make them appear. But with this being a more complicated way of using my semblance and vampirism at the same time, maybe it takes more to keep them from dissipating, and sunlight could be considered to be something that would dissipate shadows, aside from the way it weakens me anyway.”

Ruby hadn’t gone on an excited analytical rant like this since the last time Blake had indulged her and listened to her talk about her designs for Crescent Rose or her arm. Seeing Ruby dive headlong into it was an experience Blake enjoyed just from how brightly it made her leader shine. 

“If that weakening is only perceived, then I don’t quite see why it would have such a significant effect on something semblance-like, when semblances function on a subconscious level that shouldn’t be affected by personal limitations of understanding in it’s function.” Weiss spoke up from xyr place in Blake’s lap. “There are studies on these things, the nature of the soul is immutable, and semblance use isn’t affected by the beliefs of the user so much as who they are.” 

“But Professors Peach and Goodwitch both made it sound like perception is a really important factor when you’re dealing with anything supernatural. Of course Blake’s semblance would work no matter what, but when you add vampire powers to that it almost certainly puts it in a kind of state of flux.” Ruby got progressively more excited as she went on. “In fact, I wonder if this might be a kind of Schrodinger’s Cat situation, where the details of what Blake’s even doing won’t actually become determined until we think we know what they are. That would be so cool. I take back what I said before, I love metaphysics!” 

“We’re not putting me in a cardboard box to test that hypothesis.” Blake deadpanned.

“Huh?” Ruby blinked, her eyes widening as she realized what Blake meant. “Wait, no I, uh... I don’t mean like...” 

“I know, I’m just teasing you.” Blake grinned toothily, doing her best to disarm Ruby’s unexpectedly severe distress. “I know you know better, and even if you didn’t I wouldn’t hold it against you, even if you don’t have cat joke privileges yet.”

“Eh, I’m not very good at puns anyway. Too slow to think of them if I didn’t plan them beforehand.” Ruby relaxed a little, her smile coming back. “This is so much fun.”

“Fun? This is much closer to being a matter of life and death.” Weiss hitched an eyebrow sternly.

“Well, I mean, it’s a fun intellectual exercise. It’s different from most of our schoolwork since that’s all primarily memorization combined with gaining comprehension from instruction, but this is us just throwing our heads at a phenomena most of the world is never going to know anything about with no one actively guiding us, and no source of established knowledge.” Ruby ranted, her grin coming back full force. “It’s awesome! And, yeah, also important.” 

“True. I suppose the true magnitude of the things we’re considering hasn’t properly hit us, given how they’ve simply become a part of our lives.” Weiss nodded contemplatively. “And this is a delightful puzzle to work out. A puzzle that may not even operate on logic does make for an excellent challenge.” Xyr grin was nearly sharklike as xe licked xyr lips.

“That’s the spirit.” Ruby clapped her hands together excitedly. “I think this placebo thing is pretty solid, so let’s test it some more by trying to reduce how much it affects Blake. I think the most obvious thing we can do is get her some sunglasses.”

As much as Blake wanted some damn sunglasses, that didn’t seem relevant to a discussion of how to make her stronger in direct sunlight. “Okay, I do want sunglasses, but I don’t think that would actually change how powerful I am so much as just make existing less uncomfortable.” 

“Ahhh, but that’s where the biggest clue we’ve gotten today comes in.” Ruby wagged her finger at Blake, radiating adorable smugness. “Your headache appeared suddenly because your perception was temporarily enhanced. Now, I’m guessing that normally you don’t get a headache until longer than we spent outside today, right?”

“Right.” She went along with Ruby’s questioning, still not sure where this was going.

“And since it all boils down to perception, because your sense of time was accelerated, you subjectively experienced a greater amount of time in the sun than two hours. Plus, if your senses were also generally enhanced, that would mean you were processing more information than usual, and thus would become more prone to overstimulation from your super vampire senses. Therefore, the first thing we want to take care of is your visual overstimulation from how bright sunlight is, given that you can see perfectly in the dark.”

“When you put it like that it feels like I should have thought of this sooner.” Blake settled into her bed, pulling Weiss fully into being her little spoon. “Thank fuck I have two brilliant and adorable girlfriends to spell it out for me.”

“Damn right you do.” Weiss smirked, then wriggled around, pressing xyrself more closely against Blake’s body. “On that note, sunscreen should help as well, though I believe that blocking out the sun with a parasol would be more optimal.”

“I guess I do hate the sun more than I hate the ghost of Roman Torchwick and his attempt at murdering me.” Blake reluctantly relented. What a strange sentence.

“Now, that was rather draining on both my aura and my concentration, and I can think of two possible ways that we could go about _reinvigorating_ me before we study for that upcoming herbology test.”

“As much as I do adore it when you take a nap on me, I have a strange suspicion that the other option is something that you’re fishing for.” Blake smirked and pressed a kiss against the back of Weiss’ head as her grip tightened around xyr.

Weiss’ gaze however, was fixated on Ruby. “As a matter of fact, I was wondering if perhaps you would like to watch, Ruby. I wouldn’t want you to feel left out, after all.”

Ruby blushed the color of her cape, the confidence she had had when explaining her theories completely gone as her eyes flicked between the two of them. “Uhhh...” drool began to slowly trickle from the edge of her mouth.

“You seem to have broken her.” Blake casually observed, carding her hands through Weiss’ hair.

Slowly, Ruby’s eyes lost their slightly glazed over look, and she returned to being functional. “I might leave at some point, but if you’re both okay with it...”

“Good, you should leave if you get uncomfortable. However,” Weiss licked xyr lips, a sharp, almost predatory glint in xyr eyes that made Blake chuckle, “I assure you, I’m much more than just okay with the idea.”

“It sounds like a good time to me.” Blake let her eyes blatantly rake over Ruby’s squirming form. The things she was going to do if her girlfriend ever felt comfortable with it.

“Alright, sure, let’s talk details.” Ruby mumbled into her own pillow.

###### Qrow

To say that Qrow was having a shitty week would be an understatement. Hearing about his niece’s problems, getting captured along with her, and not even being given any alcohol by their captors were all adding up to give him a massive headache. It wasn’t even a matter of drowning out just how guilty he was about all of this at this point, if he didn’t have something to drink soon he’d end up dealing with withdrawal symptoms, though he was supposedly going to be released before they got bad enough to hamper his ability to fight and escape.

The worst part was that his captors weren’t even that strong. They had beaten him with superior tactics, an ambush, and a semblance that had taken him by surprise. Now that he was in an open space with no civilian bystanders at risk, if he could just get out of these ropes it would be easy to simply beat these smug little mercenary shits into bloody pastes with his bare hands, even the one who could regenerate to inexplicable degrees. Capturing them alive would be preferable of course, but not practical, given that they were in the middle of the wilderness with no means of transporting two prisoners securely.

“This isn’t working, and now my neck hurts even more than my ego.” Yang made a disgusted sound in the back of her throat as she stopped hitting her head against the pole they were mutually tied to. “Now what?”

“As far as escape goes, I’ve got nothing. It’s a matter of waiting for something to go wrong and give us an opportunity.” Qrow internally bemoaned the abscenese of his flask, which would have helped said waiting pass so much more quickly. “And as far as using this time to do something productive goes, why don’t we continue that little talk we were having at the bar?”

“Oh hell no, I am not going to talk about feelings with you when we’re fucking prisoners. Even if I am too tied up to do anything else.” Yang immediately caught on to what he was saying, and griped about it.

“You’ve already given me a entire fucking lecture about not feeling bad over my semblance, this is just revenge.” And because he genuinely wanted his niece to feel better about herself, but that was something he would never admit, even under threat of death. “Besides, we have literally nothing better to do.”

“You vindictive bastard.” Yang said, with absolutely no real venom behind the words. “This is what I get for being emotionally supportive?”

“Since when is verbal abuse emotional support?” Qrow shot back, fully knowing that that was exactly Yang’s rant had been. They’d both grown up in environments where trading insults was just another way of saying hello, to the point that they understood the difference between a real insult and a matter of casual conversation. The difference between them being that Yang was much more of a social chameleon than him or Raven, so she actually got along with others easily.

“Since we’re Branwens, obviously.” Yang echoed Qrow’s exact thoughts back at him, if with less verbosity. She sighed shortly after, letting go of her insincere offence. “Are you sure you want to hear me bitching about Ruby?”

“Obviously not,” Qrow rolled his eyes despite Yang not being able to see his face, “but what I do want is for you to work through your shit, so get on with it. Tell uncle Qrow how you really feel.”

“That just sounds creepy.” Yang snickered briefly before sobering up once again with a groan. “Where do I even start?”

“How about you start by considering what you want to do now?” Time to play therapist. Fun. Just because it was a skill practically anyone who managed to stick with their team for long after academy training inevitably developed didn’t mean it was pleasant.

“I just want Ruby to be okay.” Guilt weighed heavily on Yang’s voice.

“No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m asking you what you want to _do_ , not what you want the world to be like. What’s going to motivate you? Where’s your passion coming from?”

“I’m going to become a huntress, obviously.” That was a start.

“Alright, why?” 

“Because I want to be able to help people, same as Blake and Ruby. Especially other Faunus. I want to be able to fight back against oppressive power structures, and this is how I can get that kind of authority and experience.”

Qrow couldn’t help the sliver of laughter that he let loose, just enough that Yang noticed it from the motion of his shoulders and got defensive.

“Oi, now what?” 

“You’re so much nobler than any of us were back in the day.” Qrow made a low sound in the back of his throat that was certainly not him holding back tears. “I’m proud of you.”

“You’re going into withdrawal, aren’t you?” 

Okay, yes, he could be a bit sappy when sober, something that he hadn’t been in quite a while. “That doesn't mean that I don’t mean what I say.”

“It means that you're more out of your mind than you usually are.”

“Which is still less out of my mind than you are, miss climbing up on a lancer and hopping between them like she’s playing hopscotch.”

“You’re literally the one who came up with that idea in the first place, you gave me the idea when you told me the story of how you did it.”

“Yes, but I did it when I was a third year, you can’t even properly shape your aura yet, can you?” 

“So what? Blake offered to teach me the basics once, but she said that the first step was to meditate and practice breathing exercises and I noped the fuck out of there. I mean, can you imagine, _me_ meditating? It’s inconceivable, and the way I breathe now is fine.”

Qrow laughed uproariously at that, scaring away some birds that had been roosting in a nearby tree. That attitude wouldn’t last long once Yang started her second semester.

“Now what are you laughing at?”

“Dramatic irony.”

“Ugh, I think I preferred talking about my feelings to you lording over me about things I don’t know.”

“If you knew about it it wouldn’t be dramatic irony, now would it?” Qrow forced the remainder of his ominous chuckling back down his throat and cleared it pointedly. “Anyway, keeping in mind that you’re going to be a huntress and that that’s the most important goal in your life, what do you want your relationship with Ruby to be?”

Yang sat silently. When she spoke, her voice was far softer than it had been. “I don’t know. Aside from whatever kind of relationship she’d be most comfortable with after what happened... I hate that I’m still attracted to her. And that it feels like I shouldn’t have been with her regardless of what I did.”

“When we talked at the old bandit camp, you sounded pretty resentful about things ending between you.”

“It’s... not quite that. Do you know what Ruby did when I told her that Taiyang was my biological father, and that we couldn’t be together?” Qrow didn’t answer the rhetorical question. “She argued that there was nothing morally wrong with us dating anyway. I tried to keep pushing her away while she did it, and she ended up pissing me off before she backed off because she didn’t know about Vernal and it was all getting to my head, but the thing is that the more I think about it, the more I realize that her arguments weren’t even wrong. She was completely correct.”

Qrow tried and failed to articulate his general discomfort with the idea. “You’re going to have to spell that out for me.”

“The thing that’s unethical about incest is that when two people are closely related to each other they’re generally different ages, and that makes for a relationship where until both of them are adults, one is generally considered to have some degree of authority over the other, meaning that if they end up in an intimate relationship it’s very possible that the older one manipulated or groomed the other. We didn’t even meet until Beacon, so that isn’t a possibility.”

“Is that how _you_ feel about it though?”

“I don’t know. I think I might want it to be.” Yang sighed heavily, her voice strained and hesitant. “It feels like I’m just selfishly scrambling to justify something that's actually a terrible idea just because I want it.”

Shit, Yang’s relationship drama was _already_ worse than anything he’d dealt with. Not that that was hard, since he had methodically avoided getting attached to anyone for decades. “Look, I’m no expert on healthy relationships of any kind, but it seems to me like you have every intention of maintaining one if you ever have the chance again, despite all these circumstances. If you’re having trouble convincing yourself of something that you think is logically sound, then the problem isn’t necessarily that you’re rationalizing doing something shitty, it might be that there’s a different reason why you don’t want to come to terms with this. Maybe you should just focus on forgiving yourself.”

“You say that like it’s an attainable goal.”

“Which it is.” Qrow sighed a sigh that encapsulated the entirety of his many years of being annoyed by the stubbornness of young people. “Look, we know Ruby. We both know she’s not going to hold this against you, and I’m willing to bet she already told you something along those lines.”

“Sort of. Mostly she just tried to avoid talking about it.” 

“Well that’s a start, I guess. Ultimately you’re the one who has to deal with the fact that you did this, and find a way to live with it.”

“I don’t suppose you have any advice about that?”

“All I can tell you is what not to do. Don’t run away. Admittedly, this time, giving Ruby space sounds like it was a good call, as long you go back and she wants you back. Also, don’t take up drinking.”

“Eh, you’re already about two years too late on that front.” Yang snorted. “But, no, I know what you mean.”

“That damn White Fang is a terrible influence these days.” Qrow tsked, disappointed. He would say that Kali and Ghira should have known better than to let it get that bad, but he could hardly hold retirement against anyone in a line of work like his or theirs.

“It wasn’t all bad. After all, it had a Blake Belladonna.”

“Bla-” If Qrow hadn’t been tied up, he would have smacked himself. He resolved that he needed to meet Blake at some point, if only to tell her parents how she was doing. “For fuck’s sake Yang, you never thought to mention that your best friend was Blake Beladonna?”

“Why, do you know her?” 

“Friend of the family.” Qrow let it rest at that. If Blake wanted to keep her background to herself that was her business.

“Oh. She doesn’t really talk about her family.” Yang cleared her throat awkwardly. “I’m just gonna stew on some of that stuff you said now, so shut up.”

“I’ll shut up when I’m dead.”


	40. Lightning Struck Me, I See The Smallest Parts of Myself Now

On my third night housed within the ruins, a vision of chaos and death appeared before me. The streets that had just hours ago been mysteriously vacant of any sign of the fate of these people were now riddled with emaciated corpses, every skeletal face eternally frozen in a visage of horror. Great beasts roamed the streets, their bodies twisted and grotesque. With each beast that I slayed, another seemed to appear after I looked away. This was not the prophetic dream I had been promised, but a nightmare.

Do not misunderstand my words. These beasts were not the creatures of Grimm, though their mindless hatred and ferocity was comparable to the world’s blight. They bled, hot and red, and the stench of their life and death permeated the land itself. 

My clothes became soaked in blood in a matter of minutes, my slaughter seemingly endless as I wound my way through labyrinthine and hostile streets. It wasn’t until I encountered Her that I laid eyes upon some semblance of humanity, though even that semblance was twisted and alien, a form of shadow-nay, a form of Darkness, that bore only passing resemblance to the humanoid form, as if in grotesque mockery, resembling a child’s misshapen clay statue.

“What is this, that stands before me?” I watched the being warily, for it did not act as any mere beast that I had before come across, it’s motions inconceivable, yet seemingly intelligent. My sword was drawn, ready to defend myself from the figure.

The sounds which echoed through my mind could hardly be described as words in any worldly sense, and nevertheless I understood. “I̡̬̎̀ ͉̅ä͓͖̫̩̏̔̒m̱͘ ̤̚t̳̤̒h̢̡̉̉e̛ͅ ̰̹̳̟̄̅͌̚s̘̘̎͐h͍̺̀a̪͠d̤̭̑͠ő͎̻w̡͈̮̥͔̾̃̿̊ ̗͒̏͟t̬̺͆͛ḧ͓̰͚͇́̒͗̑a͎̻̰̋̾͡t̝͇̥̂̿͋ ̟͐s̻̋͟͝ḩ͆i̻̙̦͗̌̅n̯̙͂̈ę̳̱̍̓̒s̪̠̅͡ ̫̂i̳n̟̽͘ͅ ̦͔͛̄͟͡th̼̫̒̐͆͟e͈̭̞̿͐͌ ̺̀n̨̗͚̰͌̀͞͠į͕̗͑͛͊g̭͑h̲̝͕̓̋̕͟͠t̨͚̳̄̏͝.͉̪͉̗̉͌̌ Į̜̽̆ a͢͠ḿ̬̠̽ ̭̬̭̩͌̈́̑i̧̨͇̠͌͆̌̑̕ͅn̫̮̏̕f͓̟͕̭͓͊̋͑͠i̝̹͇̞̊̂̑̅n̥̍i̢̜̋͋t͍̘́͡e̲̠̗̟̲͆̎̃̑,̪͡ ͕̮͍̉͊̿͜ŷ̢ȩ̰̜̅͆͞t̘͓̂͝ ̢̞̰͆̿̚ḇ̼͍̣̩̑̓͂̊̕r̠̬̩̮̊̄͗̓ȍ̢̞̥̭͒̑̈́k̢̛͙͙͙͆́́e̮͡ņ̬̱̟̽͊̄̍͢͡.̯͙͕͎̐̎̿̓ ̧͒͂̇͜ͅK̹͖̣̏̏͂n̙̯̄o͍̕w ͖̝̦̥̽͌̔ḿ̢̤̖͙̈̉̽e̘̲̮̹̓̌̎̉” The very essence of this being briefly permeated my mind, igniting the spark of a truly beautiful Madness. The beginning, a cry of outrage. Ancient purpose and wary fear. A void, bereft of life, yet living. A sea of brightly colored sparks, drifting ever higher. One above the rest, growing nearer, nearer, until finally the void itself caught fire, it’s infinite Darkness lit aflame with something else, something new and different.

This rapturous state stayed with me for time immemorial, a vision of a world infinite in distance and unbound by death. Indeed, I believe that my very soul was removed from time itself, broken and reforged, toyed with by a divinity beyond my comprehension. My body twisted alongside my mind, growing bestial as the monsters I had slain, the pain a glorious symphony in the service of gracious divinity, that which had brought to me such sights that I would never again speak the name of a false god.

When I awoke my form was unchanged, save for the cold sweat of pain that coated my frail flesh. Much of my experience felt faded, as if from a dream, but I still remembered that void, the vision of infinity itself and I saw no reasonable choice but to give myself over in service of this Great Darkness, that I might once again feel it’s touch. That others might know Her as I have.

- **Book of the Void by Acazna Aboth, Founder of the Cult of the Void**

###### Ozpin

To Ozpin, it was increasingly beginning to feel as if a pair of unseen hands were ever so slowly wrapping their fingers around the throat of Vale, and of Remnant itself. The air around him had begun to taste of dread in a way that it had not in fifteen hundred years, and with each interaction with his inner circle a tinge of paranoia warned him that any of them could be on the verge of betraying him, just like so many others. His control over both the Maidens and the Relics had been absolute ever since the Great War, and now they were ever so quickly slipping away from him. First the attack on Amber, then the destruction of the Branwen Clan, which was known to be hiding Spring. Fria was too near death to help directly, and he would never hasten that for the sake of passing the power along. Summer, meanwhile, continued to elude him.

A lack of control over the Fall Maiden had been Ozpin’s second greatest fear ever since the establishment of the Academies and the Vaults. She was the foremost obstacle meant to prevent Salem from obtaining the Crown, and with the Crown Salem could very well become unstoppable. Even against the other three relics combined, the power of the Crown was without match, as was the danger it presented in enemy hands. He had used it only a handful of times in the last century, to ensure the outcome of the Great War, in a failed attempt to save the life of the Grimm Reaper, in a desperate attempt to keep team STRQ whole, and lastly, to promote peace in the aftermath of the Faunus Rights Revolution.

In the beginning he had sworn never to use the Crown. That he would never pervert the gift of Choice through its use. Then Salem had accomplished what he had been told was impossible, returned to Remnant. Her eventual defeat had been an act of threading the needle brought about only with great aid from the Crown. Then, in the aftermath of her return to exile, her influence had lingered, stronger than before, and he had begun to lose his allies more often than before, be it to their disloyalty or to violence. It had been so simple to ensure their relative safety, and really, he owed it to them, having been responsible for their participation in the endless struggle to begin with. And now, now that he no longer had access to it, he was beginning to realize just how much he had relied on its power to maintain control of Remnant, and to safeguard his conscience. 

Nevertheless, he had no intention to allow for there to be additional blood on his hands, much less the blood of his student and one of his best agents. He would meet these odd kidnappers, find out what they wanted, and ensure Yang and Qrow were released safely, even if it killed him. 

As for who it is that wants so seriously to “meet” with him, none of the known organizations with the resources to do this were likely suspects. This was not to the benefit of Salem, who would almost certainly prefer to take the opportunity to kill his allies, rather than even bother to let him know about their captivity. The Crown lacked the resources to take serious action in Mistral, despite the mercenaries being clearly Vacuan. And the Necromancer’s Guild was incredibly disinclined to take any kind of direct action, much less violent action, to the point that he was reasonably sure they had never done something like this before.

The circumstances themselves were odd as well, that Qrow should be tracked down was an unlikely event in itself, as his bird form was an extremely well guarded secret. It worried him, and under ordinary circumstances he would have had Qrow investigate it. Nevertheless, it was far enough away that he couldn’t afford to divert his attention from the escalating White Fang situation in Vale, aside from being inexplicable at the moment.

###### Pyrrha

Pyrrha narrowly deflected Crescent Rose’s blade an inch to the side at the same time that she stopped a small volley of icicles on her shield, then twisted on her back foot to deliver a successful counterattack. Unexpectedly, one of Weiss’ barriers suddenly appeared in the path of her backswing, trapping her arm for long enough that Ruby was able to hook the blade of Crescent Rose around her foot and unbalance her.

Even in a one against two matchup, she could hold her own. At the beginning of the year she probably could have beaten Ruby and Weiss working together, but now their teamwork was much more refined, and she was very slowly losing this battle of attrition, her opponents protecting each other well enough that she couldn’t effectively focus on eliminating a single target while they worked together to create openings in her seemingly immaculate defenses. They had improved in other ways as well, Ruby was almost ruthless in the intensity with which she fought, and Weiss was far more prepared to deal with Pyrrha’s more unconventional moves.

Eventually though, Pyrrha ended up on one knee as her aura dipped down into the red and the fight ended, Ruby and Weiss both just under half their reserves. It was a good fight, even if losing still formed a pit of anxiety in her throat that she had to fight to swallow and graciously congratulate the victors, regardless of the fact that she was expected to lose a two on one fight against some of the other most skilled people in her grade. 

“A good fight. Miss Rose, Miss Schnee, your teamwork is improving at an admirable rate, Miss Nikos, please see me after class.” Professor Goodwitch commented, her tone matter of fact as she immediately proceeded to call the next volunteers down into the arena for practice without explaining why she had called out Pyrrha. That was odd given that she was fairly sure she was getting better as well, and if Professor Goodwitch had found out about the little camping trip team JNPR had taken recently, she probably would have confronted Jaune about it, if not all of them together.

So it was with mild trepidation that Pyrrha stopped next to Goodwitch after class, standing by the side as the training arena slowly emptied of students. “You asked to speak to me Professor?”

“I did.” Goodwitch calmly slid her scroll and its stylus into her pocket as she spoke, though her attention was fixed on Pyrrha. “Given the nature of your semblance, do its effects diminish quadratically with the distance of a target from yourself?” 

“Yes, but I have about a ten foot grace radius where the amount of effort doing something takes is the same. It only starts to become more difficult after that point.” That was something Pyrrha had measured a long time, though why was the Professor asking?

“Then why is it that you’ve hardly used your semblance at all in this class?” Once again, Professor Goodwitch’s expression was thoroughly blank, in a way that Pyrrha feared was a sign that she was reserving judgement until she was done gathering information.

“Other people not knowing what my semblance is gives me a tactical and psychological advantage in duels.” Pyrrha explained.

“Then have you been extensively training it in secret, with only your closest friends to assist you in its development?” The blank stare continued to grow in intensity despite nothing seeming to change about Professor Goodwitch’s expression.

“Well... no.”

Excruciatingly slowly, a single eyebrow crawled its way up Professor Goodwitch’s face, no other muscles so much as twitching as her gaze bore a hole into Pyrrha. “And what has led you to believe that a hunter ever has reason to engage in a duel?”

“Oh...” Pyrrha couldn’t take that look anymore, averting her eyes as she got a glimpse of just how flawed her current mindset was. “I see.”

“Subtle, brief bursts of your semblance are very effective in a duel, but in any true battle, utterly disarming your opponents can be vastly invaluable, as is the ability to manipulate your surroundings without touching them, limited to ferromagnetic materials as it may be. Even if the Grimm are not made of metal, you may be able to develop countless effective strategies against them, and the tactical advantage of your team takes absolute precedence over solitary ability in a battle. Do not allow your semblance to be the crux of your strategy in a fight against people, but do not continue to neglect it either.” Professor Goodwitch’s expression relaxed slightly once she was done with her scolding. “That said, our semblances do have some similarities, so if you wish for advice on training or developing new techniques, do come to me during my office hours and ask.”

“I will.” Pyrrha nodded intently, already trying to think of how she could work to improve her grasp over her semblance. “Thank you, professor.”

“I’m simply doing my job, Miss Nikhos, no matter how obvious your mistake may seem, though I do hope that in the future you will begin applying your own intellect to correcting such errors in your mindset. If Peter didn’t have his eye on recruiting your team for the sake of one of his mad hunts come the Final Exams, I would have allowed you to learn your lesson the hard way.” Momentarily, a very tired, almost resigned expression swept across Professor Goodwitch’s face. “As it stands, I expect that you will need all the assistance you can get.”

“Professor Port is going to personally lead the mission for our final exams this semester?” Pyrrha wasn’t particularly enthused about the idea of being led into extreme danger by the teacher whose abilities she had the least confidence in. More blusterous opponents tended to be less of a threat, in her experiences in an arena.

“He may be... overzealous in sharing his experience with his classes, but keep in mind that those stories of his are entirely true. Thus far you have seen nothing of just how dangerous us elite hunters are, as even I would have difficulty repairing the property damage caused by such a demonstration.” 

“Is that why students are supposed to ignore any explosions coming from the forest?”

“Yes, those that are noticeable from on campus are typically caused by the most skilled among fourth year students who choose to receive extra instruction in controlling their auras.” 

“Which would also mean that the reason why third and fourth year students are banned from participating in the Vytal Tournament is the danger to civilians, isn’t it?” 

“As well as the fact that missions take priority, and they go on a much larger number of missions than other students, yes. And the fact that the best of them would almost certainly dominate all less experienced teams, making the participation of newer students a moot point.”

“But then... Why don’t people in general realize that fully trained hunters can be that strong? And why wouldn’t their fights with other people inside of cities also destroy large amounts of property, and then end up being reported about on the news?”

“It’s something of an unspoken agreement. Because any criminal capable enough to become comparable in strength to an elite hunter is also intelligent and sane enough to avoid drawing that kind of attention or destroying the very building that they’re fighting in. Widespread destruction like that is bad for everyone, including organized crime. As far as the general public is concerned, no hunter dies in their bed, unless they were assassinated. If they realize how strong we are, they’ll eventually realize that the Grimm can be even stronger. I’m sure that the consequences of that are self-apparent.” 

“Right.” Pyrrha nodded. Anything that would improve morale would deter Grimm, and it made sense to keep information like that secret, given that there wasn’t anything civilians could do about it anyway. “Thank you for telling me all of this, Professor. It’s good to know.”

“No thanks are necessary, Miss Nikhos, it is simply one of my many responsibilities.” Glynda smiled before sending Pyrrha off with a wave of her hand. “Now go, I’ve taken up too much of your time already, and I always have other work to be done.”

“Okay.” Pyrrha inclined her head respectfully once before leaving, ideas of how she should be truly using her semblance filling her head.

###### Yang

“There’s a storm gathering.” Qrow sounded even more annoyed with life than he had earlier, a breathy, almost resigned rasp to his voice.

“Yeah, I noticed too.” There weren’t any clouds in the sky yet, but Yang and her family could smell these things sometimes. “You think it’s a bird Faunus thing?”

“Probably. Either way, we’re sitting in a metal cage, soaked in an aura of bad luck, and there’s a thunderstorm coming.” 

“Well, maybe the cage’ll make for a decent Faraday Cage?” Yang didn’t know that much about how a Faraday cage was designed, but she very much doubted it. And did luck even work that way? Building up over time as it was exposed to an influence. It seemed unlikely.

“We would still have to deal with the heat, which could easily kill us. Or worse, melt parts of the cage, and make molten metal slowly drip onto our skin.”

“You could afford to be less graphic about that.” Yang winced. She liked to think she was used to danger. But that was the kind of danger that you could stand your ground and fight back against, not forces of nature like this. “Maybe it’ll be a chance for us to break out instead?” 

“We’d have to get obscenely lucky.”

Yang stayed quiet. She wanted to say something, but Qrow was right, and she hated it. In that moment, it made far too much sense how a semblance like his could have affected him the way it had.

Instead of focusing on the impending danger that she couldn’t do anything about because she was tied up in the middle of nowhere, Yang brooded. She wondered whether any of her friends had noticed that she wasn’t answering calls from them. They might have, but they could probably excuse it as just a consequence of the fact that she was living on the road, if Ozpin hadn’t told them she’d been kidnapped. 

Would they even care? No, of course Blake and Weiss would, they’d already already said as much when they called her before. But Ruby... Ruby was doing better without her. Whenever she did get back she should probably just do her best to leave Ruby alone outside of team stuff like training. As much as she’d like to go back to at least being friends, it probably wasn’t possible, and she really needed to just accept that and stop worrying about Ruby already. 

Yeah, it would be best to just keep her distance and let things die down. It didn’t matter how Ruby was selfless, brilliant, adorable, and incredibly sweet. She would just deal with it, and leave Ruby alone.

They sat in silence until the rain had begun to fall and the skies darkened with incoming thunderclouds that bore the first traces of lightning. 

“This is such bullshit. I can’t even get my shirt off right now, forget about my bra.” Yang groused, wriggling pointlessly against the ropes.

“Why the fuck do you want to take your shirt off at a time like this?”

“I was born with my tits out and I’m gonna die that way dammit.” The rain that started to pour down was at least going to end up doing the same thing, soaking her quickly under a heavy deluge.

“That’s the most inane sentiment about imminent death I’ve ever heard.” Qrow snorted derisively. “I’d drink to it, even if I don’t want anything to do with it.”

“I figured you’d get it.” Yang chuckled as resounding thunderclap filled the clearing, reminding them of the danger they were in. It was close, so she did what she always did at times like this, even if this was the worst it had ever been. “I guess you could say we’re really in for a _shock_ this evening.”

“I knew I should have made my lawyer stop being so _cagey_ about my will before I came out here.” Qrow returned the favor and they laughed together, half-heartedly.

“Damn you. I can’t believe you _roped_ me into all this.”

An instant after Yang’s joke, they were surrounded by an intense flash of light that would have temporarily blinded both of them without aura. As their eyes squeezed shut, there was a blast of heat comparable to a large fire dust round and an eardrum-bursting _crack,_ followed by the sound of metal shattering and the feeling of something loosening.

By the time Yang got her eyes open Qrow was already on his feet. The cage they’d been under was gone, red hot fragments of metal all around them, though not a single one had hit them. Another was embedded in the post, having sliced cleanly through the rope that had bound them and was now slowly disintegrating into nothing.

A distant figure that was probably Gregora started running toward them from the treeline, with Qrow quickly moving to intercept her as Yang got up and started following after her uncle, though she wasn’t nearly as fast as him.

When the two distant figures met, all Yang could really make out through the rain was the resulting shockwave. 

A massive rush of air distorted the rain as it fell, spattered with droplets and _chunks_ in its wake. Chunks that Yang could see reforming into a whole even as they flew. Then there were more shockwaves, each one tearing one of the fighters into pieces. As she got closer she was relieved to see that Qrow was the one still standing, and single handedly punching Gregora with so much force the prodigious regeneration she had displayed when first attacking them wasn’t able to keep up.

The dozen or so seconds that it took for the small, bloody pieces of Gregora’s body to stop trying to reassemble themselves under Qrow’s fists felt like minutes as Yang watched. She was plenty used to death in and of itself, but damn if watching someone’s mutilated remains try to come back together wasn’t disturbing. Not to mention the fact that blood and flesh were spraying all over the place.

“Oh, great. Bonus trauma.” Yang sighed as she walked up to Qrow, who barely even looked short of breath. “Okay, so like: what the fuck, how did you do that?”

“Eh, most hunters can do that to some degree with their auras. I’m one of the better ones with it, which is what makes me so good at what I do.” He shrugged casually. “I’m surprised you haven’t seen Raven do something similar, although I guess it’s not as if bandits ever try to fight people who can defend themselves.”

“That’s just uncalled for.” Yang rolled her eyes at the dig, but brushed it off as best she could. It still stung, unlike most of Qrow’s comments. “Those people were my family too, you know.”

“I... never knew that, actually.” Qrow narrowed his eyes at her briefly, as if reassessing something. “Anyway, I’m guessing the other one already ran away to whatever vehicle they used to take us here, if he was around to begin with. If he does turn up around here, try to take him alive if you can. I’m going to fly around and look for our stuff, Bumblebee, some method of transportation, or at least a road or settlement. Stay here until I come back, and try to stay warm, although it isn’t that time of year yet.”

“Alright.” Yang nodded. Not having her weapons or any dust wasn’t great in this situation, but she should be fine for a while. With her semblance up she could be durable enough to punch through a few ursa barehanded, it was even something she’d trained under careful supervision, that thin knife’s edge of being low enough on aura that her semblance made her strong enough to fight barehanded without her aura breaking entirely, and the Grimm in the immediate area had probably already been cleared out for their captivity anyway. “See you soon.”

“See you.” Qrow nodded, and turned into a bird, flying off into the storm. She had some things to say to him now, mostly about their miraculous escape, but that could wait until they were on the move.

###### Ruby

Ruby was laying on her stomach, partially buried in the stuffed animals Weiss had given her, as she read in the dark. It was past the time she usually ate dinner at, but she didn’t really care, and wasn’t particularly hungry, even though she had essentially only pretended to eat breakfast that morning. For no reason in particular, she needed to be cooped up under blankets and away from people, and had needed that all day. Her wings were wrapped almost as tightly around her body as her blankets, despite the fairly warm temperature in the room. 

Even though she was trying to focus on her scroll and the gay little fanfiction she was reading on said scroll, her muscles were in a state of near constant tension, and she just couldn’t seem to fully disregard how badly she wanted to be held, even with the help of blankets and stuffed animals that attempted to recreate the feeling. She’d felt something like this all day, but she was pretty sure no one had noticed. She didn’t even know why she felt terrible and on edge, and there probably wasn’t a reason at all, so there’s no point in bringing everyone else down because of it.

At some point her reason for not going to eat dinner turned from not being hungry to not wanting to get out of bed, since being like this was at least a little bit of a relief from how on edge she felt. In time, she wasn’t even trying to read anymore, just laying there and trying to focus on the weight of her blankets pressing down on her and on keeping her breathing steady.

Somewhere in the distance there was a gunshot, and her entire body flinched, anxiety spiking heavily as she buried her head under the covers. Sudden noises were fine in the middle of a fight, she was expecting them. Not like this, in her room, when she was just trying to be alone and comfortable. 

There was a slow squeak as the door opened, its handler’s steps deliberately making soft sounds as they approached Ruby’s bed, then stopped next to it and cleared their throat. “Hey. Weiss is outside, but I came in first because I was a little more... calm. We were worried. Did you eat dinner?”

“Not hungry.” Ruby mumbled into her pillow, squeezing a stuffed animal closer to her chest. Immediately after she spoke, her stomach gurgled in protest

“Well, we brought some food back, whenever you feel like getting out of bed.” Blake sighed, peering at Ruby with concern. “Want to talk about whatever’s wrong?”

“There’s nothing wrong. I just feel like this for no reason.” Ruby shrugged weakly from her position on her stomach.

“I... think I know what you’re talking about. I think Weiss probably does too.” Blake sat in her own bed, watching Ruby with concern. “Just... irrational fear, coming from everywhere.”

“That sounds right, I guess.” Putting a name to what she was feeling didn’t really help, but there was something that might. “I think... could you hold me?”

“Are you sure you’d be okay with that?” 

“Not exactly, but I don’t think it could possibly be less okay than this is.” Ruby felt small and far too sensitive, like the slightest offence on her senses would grind her to dust. “And text Weiss that xe should come in as long as xe doesn’t make any loud noises.”

“Alright.” The corners of Blake’s mouth twitched upward, even as she radiated concern. It wasn’t the best of circumstances, but Ruby was just as excited about potentially being able to cuddle with Blake as Blake was.

Ruby couldn’t help pouting a little as Blake had to pull the blanket off of her and remove the stuffed animal from her embrace in order to be able to slide into its place in her embrace. She winced a little bit as Blake’s arms slowly slid around her, but the new discomfort and worry that stemmed from being touched still wasn’t as bad as her other distress. This was concrete, and she knew it wasn’t right, that being with Blake was safe and warm, that Blake was always perfectly gentle for as long as she chose to be. Pushing it down and telling herself it was okay wasn’t actually all that hard, and left her feeling better in general.

“Is this alright?” Blake murmured softly into Ruby’s ear, her voice smooth and soft like velvet. She pulled Ruby into the crook of her neck and let her rest there, not holding on too tight.

“Yeah.” Ruby sighed, burying herself into Blake, her wings loosening slightly as she finally relaxed. “It’s making me a little bit nervous, but still better than before.”

“That’s good.” Blake sighed heavily, relaxing just as much as Ruby had. “You know, nobody ever heals from trauma. That’s not really a thing. You just sort of figure out how to cope. Some people can do it really well, so well they can almost totally ignore it all the time, but sometimes you just can’t keep coping for a while, and you need a break. That’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with this.” It almost sounded like she was talking to herself, as much as Ruby.

“Mmmm.” Ruby hummed in agreement, the small pit of anxiety in her stomach slowly fading. Her eyelids felt heavy, now that she wasn’t unreasonably tense, and instead almost perfectly comfortable. “Thanks.”

“I do believe I understand what you meant by your opinion on my closeness with Blake before.” Weiss stood nearby, smiling softly. “Might I join you?”

“I wanna say yes, but wings actually make it hard to cuddle me from behind. And that might be a bit much.” Ruby scooted back a little, pulling Blake with her. “You could take Blake’s other side though. Make a Blake sandwich.”

“I think I will.” Weiss smiled and climbed in on Blake’s other side, assuming the position of her big spoon.

It was easy to lose track of time while cuddling. After a while, Ruby felt secure enough to get up and eat some of the food Weiss had brought, then go back to letting Blake hold her, though she wasn’t particularly anxious anymore. She’d missed this feeling so much, of casual closeness like this, romantic or not.

“I’m really glad I can do this right now.” Ruby guided Blake’s hands to her hips and let them rest there as they went back to cuddling. “It’s still sort of rough, but it’s better than it is uncomfortable for now. Hopefully Weiss can get a turn tomorrow.”

“I hope so too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alex Trebeck: And welcome back to Trauma Jeopardy! Our winner from yesterday is Yang Branwen, and here are today's categories. Dead Mothers. Abandonment Issues. Near Death Experiences. Abusive Relationships. Emotional Manipulation.
> 
> Yang: I'll take Near Death Experiences for 600$
> 
> Alex: It's the daily double!


	41. Tai-ing Up Some Loose Ends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yo, the last arc (sorta two arcs) of this story is going to start next chapter! After that will be the sequel, of course. Still, we've reached the beginning of the end of the beginning of this series!

The threat posed by a specific species of grimm or by a mission as made available to hunters is measured on a exponential scale(y=e^x) from 0 to 10 known as the Lindenbauer Scale, with 0 representing the average threat posed by a single creep, encountered in conditions that favor neither the Grimm nor the human. The single most dangerous Grimm proven to exist is the Leviathan, with a rating of 7.7. It is estimated that any mission to explore the once inhabited continent of Verlorene, now more colloquially referred to as simply the Grimlands, would have a threat rating of at least 9.

Hunters are classified and granted permission to accept various missions on the basis of the estimated maximum point on the Lindenbauer Scale that they are able to complete all assigned objectives under. 

Any hunter graduating from an academy is automatically qualified as a class B hunter, capable of handling most miscellaneous and short-range extermination missions alone. Class B hunters are qualified to handle any situation rated 5 or less on the Lindenbauer Scale single handedly.

Class D hunters are commonly local militia members or combat school students who did not qualify to enter into an academy but are still required to register with the Association, and are required to defend their place of residence in the event of an assault, but may not work missions. They are rated at a 3 on the Scale.

Class C hunters typically either hold positions of minor authority in the military or law enforcement, or are career hunters who never had an opportunity to properly receive academy training. They are offered standardized combat training, and typically express a desire to become stronger hunters. They are qualified for up to rating 4 missions.

Class A hunters are almost exclusively academy graduates. Qualified for missions up to rating 6. Approximately 43% of academy graduates graduate as class A hunters.

Class S hunters are rated at a minimum of 6.5 on the Lindenbauer Scale, and students do not have the option of graduating at this license class. On average, 6.5% of hunters reach this rank at some point in their careers, and it is a prerequisite for a hunter to teach full time at an academy.

###### Yang

It was raining a little bit more lightly when Qrow came back and perched on Yang’s shoulder, though she was still soaked through and miserably warm from the heavy summer shower. At least her wings didn’t absorb water the way hair and clothes do. “Hey, there’s still shit I want to talk to you about. Be a human or I’ll feed you birdseed.”

“They left Bumblebee and most of our stuff over this way, but our scrolls are gone.” Qrow turned back, now with Harbinger strung across his back, and struck off in a seemingly random direction, completely ignoring Yang’s comment about talking.

“That’s nice at least. I’m getting sort of attached to her.” Yang nodded as she fast walked to catch up, then fell into an even pace beside her uncle. “Don’t think that I’m going to let what happened back there with the lightning pass.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, the part where I’m just as fine as you are, even though according to you I should have been just as unlucky as that cage and rope.”

Qrow didn’t answer, and instead accelerated his pace.

“You know what I think? I think that just because you can’t consciously control your semblance doesn’t mean it can’t discriminate, at least when it comes to people you love.” Yang aggressively power walked right alongside Qrow, keeping up with her longer legs. “I think your soul is still smart enough to tell who you couldn’t possibly want your semblance to affect, and that you thinking it affects people like me is just a matter of confirmation bias because you started blaming yourself for every little thing once you figured out what your semblance is.”

“That’s ridiculous.” Qrow replied curtly, keeping his gaze fixed steadily in front of him.

“Then why am I still alive?”

“I don’t fucking know!” Qrow barked angrily at her, still pointedly keeping ahead of her so that all she could see was his back. “And I’m not going to screw that fact up by thinking too hard about it! Just leave it alone and keep walking!”

“Alright, that’s it. Stop walking.” Yang grabbed Qrow’s hand and turned him around, his jaw clenched. Now that they were finally face to face again, she strode forward and hugged him tight, burying her face in the grey dress shirt that smelled like alcohol despite being soaked with rainwater. “I was pretty scared too.”

“Ugh...” Qrow hugged back reluctantly at first, then just as tightly as her. “I’m used to being in danger. I was never worried about myself.”

“It’s okay uncle Qrow, your secret’s safe with me.” Yang just wrapped her wings around both of them, not giving an inch.

“I know.” Qrow sighed. “Are you done yet? I hate this touchy-feely shit.”

“I’ll be done once you admit that I’m right about your semblance.”

“Your theory is probably right.” Qrow stepped away and pointlessly readjusted his cape. “But once we’ve done what we need to do you’re spending the rest of your little sabbatical on Sanus. Try to get away from whoever’s responsible for this shit.”

“Yeah. I’m okay with that.” Yang rubbed rainwater out of her eyes and continued on in the direction they had been moving before. “There’s nothing left for me in Anima anyway. Before that though, I’m taking a long shower, rainwater always screws with my hair.”

###### Ozpin

An unknown number rang Ozpin’s private scroll just as he was in the process of boarding an Atlesian aircraft to Mistral. His first, and quickly subdued, hope was that it may be Qrow. When he answered and saw that it was indeed Qrow, he let out a breath that he hadn’t even known he’d been holding. This would make for an excellent opportunity to investigate, rather than capitulate.

“Hey Oz, we got out of there. Both of us are fine, but one of our captors had to die, and the other escaped. In other words, we got no intel out of it.” Qrow shrugged, his usual scowled slightly crooked.

“I am simply relieved that you’ve ended the situation safely.” Ozpin drummed his fingers against the armrest of his seat. This entire situation was going to be a pain to investigate. If anyone were to discover something in the first place, he won’t know how heavily classified it needs to be until the actual culprit is discovered. Meaning that he could potentially only trust his inner circle with an investigation of what could very well be a matter unrelated to Salem entirely.

“Right. Look, aside from that, Yang’s been worried you’re going to tell her to get her ass back to Beacon, you’re not, right?”

“While I am now concerned for her safety, there isn’t any concrete reason to believe that she was targeted. Restricting her to Sanus should be sufficient, especially given that she leaves little behind in the way of a paper trail.”

“Yeah, I pretty much told her the same thing.”

“Good, both of you should come back in an independently arranged airship. And do try to be discrete about it this time.”

“Look, I’m fine with people not recognising me by my appearance, but when a cashier looks at my ID and muses to himself about what Qrow Branwen the Huntsman is up to these days, and comments on my vague resembl-”

“Goodbye Qrow.” Ozpin hung up just in time to break into a series of mysterious, refined chuckles. Qrow’s simultaneous fame and utter anonymity wouldn’t stop being amusing until the day he became someone else.

###### Weiss

Pyrrha was perhaps one of Weiss’ favourite sparring partners. The two of them were the fighters in their respective teams who most heavily utilized pure swordplay, and thus their duels were an excellent opportunity for Weiss to hone the most intricate of xyr skills, even if xe always lost against Pyrrha. Sometimes they even fought without semblances, though not today.

Today, Pyrrha was somehow even more agile than usual, her parries and thrusts coming at Weiss on the turn of a coin, movements that Weiss would expect to be lacking in thrust and leverage came at xyr with as much effect as something that just recently took Pyrrha nearly one and a half times as long to bring to bear. At the same time however, Pyrrha’s typical rhythm was slightly off, and whatever she was doing to move more quickly seemed to be taking effort to get used to, as while she had now somehow improved her ability to recover from overextending her reach, she still threw herself off with the relative speed of her attacks. No, not speed, so much as acceleration. Her ability to change her momentum quickly was much better, though she wasn’t using it perpetually.

Finally, Weiss managed to take advantage of one of Pyrrha’s brief moments of awkwardness with a flick of xyr wrist and a parry that sent Pyrrha’s sword spinning to the side of the training room, followed by two measured steps back. It wouldn’t take long for Pyrrha to retrieve her sword with her semblance, but a few seconds was all Weiss needed.

Myrtenaster’s chamber locked in lightning dust as Weiss began to form the glyph under xyr feet, everything seemingly slowing down around xyr as it took effect. In moments xe was able to form the barrier glyphs xe needed, and rush up to them as Pyrrha was concentrating on retrieving her sword. She saw what was happening and threw her shield just a moment too late, and xe slid to the side by the precise amount that was needed to avoid it as xe stepped onto the first barrier and began to aireally maneuver around Pyrrha at high speeds.

From glyph to glyph Weiss bounced, Myrtenaster sparking with lightning as xe manuvered around Pyrrha’s guard in three dimensions, slipping around just slightly more quickly than she could follow in a series of heavy slashes. 

At least, that was what was supposed to happen. Instead, the moment Myrtenaster was infused with lightning, it was violently torn from xyr hand by a force much stronger than Pyrrha’s semblance had ever been before, unbalancing xyr to the point that xe was open to Pyrrha’s counterattack. That counterattack was followed up by a series of attacks that Weiss barely avoided by dodging, until xe didn’t, the arc of Pyrrha’s sword changing to adapt to xyr motions in the middle of swinging.

From there, it didn’t take long for Weiss to reach the red and end the match as xe always did, on xyr ass and slightly moody. If it weren’t for the fact that xe’d never seen Pyrrha lose in a one on one duel, xe would probably have developed an ulcer by this point. Instead, xe just sighed a little bit as Pyrrha helped xyr back to xyr feet.

“That was new. I thought that you couldn’t apply that much force with your semblance.”

“Normally I can’t, but you made it easy by applying a massive charge to your own sword.” Pyrrha tilted her head curiously as she watched Weiss. “I actually would have expected you to know better than that.”

“I was testing the limits of your semblance.” Weiss clicked xyr tongue. “I had distantly hoped that you might be restricted to creating a positive charge and attracting my blade. That move aside, you seem to be moving much faster today.”

It had become something of a tradition to discuss their semblances and go about some individual training together after their fights. Pyrrha had a better grasp of the more esoteric aspects of semblances, while Weiss’ knowledge of physics could easily be of use to Pyrrha in training hers.

“I’ve been experimenting with using my semblance less sparingly, and with using it aggressively. What do you think?”

“It’s quite effective, though you clearly still need to adjust to your style mentally.” Weiss agreed. The ability to maneuver even more effectively would make a fighter like Pyrrha much more dangerous than she already was. 

“Yeah.” Pyrrha undid her ponytail and began putting away her weapons, then took out a small bag. She reached in and took out a handful of small black objects. “I’ve also started using these to train my endurance and control.”

“Iron filings?” Weiss watched as the filings lifted into the air, clumped into a small ball.

“Yep.” Weiss watched intently as the filings slowly started to move, one small portion of them beginning to stream away from the source before they all fell to the ground, making Pyrrha glare at them. “I’ve been trying to make them move in a cloud formation, but I keep losing concentration on all the forces and it just falls apart.”

“The problem with that is simple. In sustained rotation about a point the acceleration vector is always directed towards the center of the circle or sphere. You don’t need a series of force vectors to direct the filings into a pattern, you only need one point charge.” 

“I see.” Pyrrha concentrated on a point somewhere in front of her, then lightly tossed the filings forward. Some of them briefly hovered higher than the others, but they never managed to complete a single orbit before falling down to the ground. “Well, this doesn’t seem likely to be good training then.”

“Mmm, I suppose that having a single point charge would make any attempt at precision or simultaneous control training pointless. Although, you might be able to sustain an orbit by applying a point charge and a general upward force to counteract gravity. That could be productive.” 

“Good idea.” Pyrrha nodded and returned the filings to her hand. She began to focus entirely on them as Weiss checked xyr aura. It was close enough to being full again for xyr to start doing what xe had planned.

Weiss took a deep breath and closed xyr eyes, clearing xyr mind of all other concerns than the act that lay immediately before xyr, just as Winter had always instructed. The tip of myrtenaster slid into the ground with ease as xe felt xyr glyph formed just a few feet in front of xyr.

The fight against the Arma Gigas, a creature that took the form of the very suits of armor said to protect the Schnee family manor from Grimm, the moment in xyr life that xe had come closest to death. The moment that xe had chosen to take a significant blow to xyr flesh, rather than allow xyr aura to shatter utterly and the fight to end in defeat. Because at the time, defeat had seemed to be a fate far worse than death, and xe still believed it to be true, though now that xe had something to live for beyond Atlas it was much more important to survive. 

As those spectators had seen it, it was a glorious battle. Rife with danger, drama, a surprise turnabout. An entertaining skirmish, something to gawk at, careless of the life that hung in the balance. Xe despised them.

There was a sound that resembled the shattering of glass, and Weiss shook xyr head, disappointed in xyrself. The attempts as summoning xe had made before Beacon had been fruitless because of xyr lack of experience, sheltered as xe was. There were no great enemies xe had defeated, arguable, xe had hardly won in any regard whatsoever.

And since beginning classes, the moment was simply too vast for xyr to grasp without distraction. Too emotional to view in retrospect, even though the moment as xe had lived it had been so numbed, deadened by doubt and confusion. It may have been a victory, but just thinking back on the time spent under xyr father’s thumb colored it all bittersweet at best while tempting xyr with the prospect of retreating to xyr room and curling up into a ball.

“Weiss? Are you alright?” Pyrrha’s voice cut through Weiss’ thoughts.

Weiss released Myrtenaster from xyr grip, only now realizing just how tight that grip had grown. “Summoning requires that I bring forth the memory of fighting foes who have allowed me to grow. As such I have only been in one significantly meaningful fight with a Grimm, but that memory is... emotionally charged, and I thus have difficulty concentrating on the more important aspects of the fight.” Xyr final words were disdainful, intended for the memory.

“Really?” Pyrrha furrowed her brow. “The emotional aspects of a fight are the most important ones, as far as I’ve always been concerned.”

“Pyrrha, do not take this the wrong way, but that is ridiculous. I am creating a simulacrum of a Grimm with my aura, the very foundation of this process is based on a deep understanding of said Grimm’s characteristics. How it moves, it’s durability and fighting style, they are what matter. It is my continued distractions that are causing my difficulties.”

“I mean, how do you know that for sure?”

“Because that is the way Winter taught me, and she was already a competent summoner at my age.” Weiss huffed and reassumed xyr stance, closing xyr eyes. “Now, I intend to continue attempting this until my aura has run out, so if you don’t mind.”

“Sure, sure.” Pyrrha took a few paces back and watched curiously through a few more failed attempts before resuming her own training.

Ultimately, it only served to wear down Weiss’ nerves.

###### Ruby

Weiss wouldn’t stop pacing, anxiously stalking the sparsely populated curbside where xe, Blake, and Ruby were waiting to be picked up. “We are late. I hate being late, it’s rude and uncivilized. This is a terrible first impression for us to leave with your parents.” 

“Don’t worry, my parents are awesome, and I guarantee they’re gonna love both of you. Besides, the airship got delayed because of those nevermores, it’s not our fault.” Ruby paced sympathetically, in a pattern that was the exact opposite of Weiss’. She wasn’t quite as restless as Weiss was, though she had never been good at waiting either. Her mom had had to be somewhere at the time they had ended up arriving, otherwise she would have been waiting to pick them up right away.

“The entire concept still strikes me as unlikely, even if I suppose my situation was outside the norm.” 

“Hey Weiss?” Ruby stopped pacing, her attention grabbed by Weiss’ comment.

“Yes?”

“Can I hug you?”

Weiss’ pacing stopped. “Yes.”

Ruby pulled Weiss into her arms, reslishing in the way xe slowly relaxed into the hug, tension draining from xyr shoulders. Even now that she was able to do things like this more regularly, she didn’t think it would ever lose its appeal. “So, what do you think of Patch so far?” She changed the subject, Weiss could learn that parents are normally good, actually, from experience.

“I like it here. There’s a lot less sound pollution than there is in Vale.” Blake casually leaned against a concrete support. She was wearing dark purple sunglasses and blocking her view of the sun with the elegant black and white trimmed parasol she’d picked up in Vale.

“It is rather... quaint. Even more so than most Valean architecture. It’s strange to see so much wood used for general construction.” Weiss held onto Ruby’s hand as their hug ended, though xe didn’t look in her direction.

“Lumber and crops are the main exports around here, but there probably aren’t many trees in Solitas, huh?”

“You can’t see a single one from the very edge of Atlas, though there are _some_ evergreen forests scattered about, and decorative trees planted about the city itself.”

“That sounds kinda sad, I love the woods.”

“It is simply how it is.” Weiss shrugged. “Personally, I prefer not to deal with troublesome flora and fauna.”

“I think you’d look good covered in dirt and scratches.” Blake commented. “Or better yet, bite marks and the blood of our enemies.”

Weiss buried xyr head in Ruby’s chest as Blake winked salaciously.

“Did somebody mention the blood of their enemies?” Summer was suddenly pulled up beside them all in her van, window down and a wide smile on her face. “I can confirm that making out while covered in blood is in fact, very hot. Grimm remains and dust residue, not so much.”

“Mooooom.” Ruby groaned. “Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy?”

“I’m just giving you some relationship advice.” Summer shrugged, her grin perfectly innocent. “So come on kids, get in my van and you two can come meet your new mother and father in law!”

Weiss just stared at Summer, xyr expression somewhere in between shock and curiosity.

“I promise I won’t bite,” Summer once again smiled innocently as she unlocked the car doors, “unless you hurt Ruby.”

“Your mom is pretty cool.” Blake closed her parasol and easily slipped into the backseat of the car, completely unphased.

“Your mother is terrifying,” Weiss grumbled as xe reluctantly followed after Blake, “yet admirable, I suppose.”

“Terrifying?” Ruby shrugged off her momentary confusion, and took shotgun, which was for once the worst spot in the car, because it meant she couldn’t hold hands with either of her girlfriends. “Nah, she’s harmless.”

“All three of you are right, I’m a retired huntress.” Summer winked, a surprisingly effective maneuver for someone with only one eye, and started driving.

###### 

“Somebody’s fighting in your backyard.” Blake commented casually as Summer pulled into the driveway.

“Oh, the Grimm come around sometimes,” Summer shrugged, unconcerned, “no need to worry about that.”

“No, it definitely sounds like two people fighting each other.”

“I’m sure it’s fine.”

Blake shot Weiss a look and as soon as Summer had parked, they and Ruby started running off to the backyard, weapons drawn.

They rushed to the sounds of fighting, only to find that it was just Raven and Tai sparring in the backyard. Raven was posed above him with a fire dust covered sword burning quickly through his aura, a look of sadistic glee on her face. 

As Blake was about to intervene, Tai slid his weapon off of his hands, a pair of gauntlets that didn’t look all that different from Yang’s. “I yield, I yield.” Strangely, he looked almost as happy to lose as Raven was to win as he extended a hand to be pulled to his feet.

With a low growl, Raven pulled him to his feet and locked his lips to hers in a searing, adrenaline-fueled ki-

“My eyes! My eyes!” Ruby frantically tried to erase the image of her dad kissing someone from her mind, desperately rubbing her eyes with her palms.

Tai cleared his throat awkwardly, the signal that it was safe for Ruby to look at him again. “So...”

“I’m dating your parents now.” Raven remarked flatly as she sheathed her sword.

“That’s so cool!” Ruby burst forward with her semblance and caught Raven in a high speed hug that nearly knocked over the older huntress. “Bonus mom!”

“You are disturbingly similar to the way Summer used to be.” Raven rolled her eyes, not responding to the hug in any other way. “Now let go of me you little munchkin.”

“Awww, she’s so much like uncle Qrow.” That is to say, perpetually pretending to care way less about everything than she actually does. Ruby beamed as she let go of her new mom. New family was the best.

“Don’t compare me to that sycophant.” Raven huffed, crossing her arms.

“Now you’ve gone and made her all pouty.” Summer said as she came around the corner of the house, walking calmly. She walked up to Raven and gently poked her cheek. “Boop.”

“Why do I put up with you people?” Raven sighed in a way that was obviously hiding a smile, her arms crossed.

“So, if I understand correctly,” Weiss said, more for xyr own sake than anything else, “Yang’s mother is now dating both of Ruby’s parents. And Ruby, you are completely fine with this, as a matter of fact?”

“Yep.” Ruby popped the p. “I only met Raven once for a really short time before, but I like her, and I’m just happy as long as she makes mom and dad happy.”

“Must be nice.” Blake commented, a look of mourning flashing across her face before quickly fading back to neutrality.

The worried look from Summer only lasted for a moment before she clapped her hands to make an announcement. “Everybody come on inside so we can get to know each other better, there are milk and cookies!”

“What kinds of cookies?” Weiss eyed the coffee table warily as they all began to shuffle through the screen door separating the living room and the backyard and herd onto the two sofas in the room, each group of three sitting comfortably shoulder to shoulder.

“Chocolate chip, obviously.” Ruby eyed Weiss warily in turn. “What were you hoping for?”

“Oatmeal raisin of course.” Weiss scoffed gently. “Chocolate chip cookies are unreliable in their quality, as it is heavily dependent on the quality of the chips themselves, and I only eat dark chocolate.”

“Good thing I use dark chocolate chips to make them then.” Summer wriggled her eyebrows at Weiss as she wafted the scent rising from the plate in xyr direction. “They’re not completely fresh, but they’re at that perfectly crispy point of cooling down instead because I kept them warm in the oven once they were done baking.”

Weiss gave the cookies an appraising look before taking one and biting in, xyr eyes widening in precious excitement. A moment later, a small plate in front of xyr was piled almost as high with cookies as Ruby’s.

“So,” Ruby mumbled out in between mouthfuls of cookies and milk, “there’s this thing Yang said we should ask you about in person when she left on her whole... uh, I don’t remember what the word I’m looking for is.”

“Sabbatical.” Blake supplied helpfully, a lone glass of milk on the table in front of her.

“Yes, that.”

“What took you so long?” Raven cocked an eyebrow at them antagonistically, up until Summer elbowed her in the ribcage and she choked out a monotone. “I mean, yes, that, allow me to explain.”

A very blunt explanation of the Maidens, Relics, Vaults, Ozpin, and the existence of Salem followed, the same information Raven had shared with Yang before she had left. Ruby wasn’t that surprised, some of it was actually a bit less weird than the implications of what supernatural things might already exist in the world.

“How odd.” Weiss mused, sipping xyr milk to create a pause between xyr words. “That Ozpin would be primarily concerned with the secrecy of something like this, yet allow for matters of the supernatural to be handled by a selection of hunters who are not nearly so directly associated with himself. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t expect magic and a few powerful items associated with that magic to compare in importance to powerful and dangerous creatures such as vampires, and whatever other supernatural beings or forces we are yet unaware of. That a force as powerful as Salem supposedly considers these Relics to be an important goal, or at least that Ozpin believes she does, implies that their power surpasses that of anything else on Remnant.”

“That’s sure one way to take all this.” Tai chuckled, shaking his head. “Gotta admit, when we heard about all this, we sort of freaked out.”

“Is a vampire, has been cursed before, would just nerd out over it if she found out without this kind of previous experience.” Blake pointed at herself, Weiss, and Ruby respectively. 

“Agh, ‘tis a fair cop.” Ruby put on a bad Atlesian accent and mimed tipping her hat to Blake.

“That’s an oxymoron.”

“True, true.” Ruby grinned.

“I just hope that you never have a reason to use any of this information.” Summer sighed, momentarily looking tired before she perked back up and nuzzled harder into Raven’s side.

“Yeah.” Blake nodded slowly, her expression dark.

“Anyway,” Tai coughed into his hand and changed the subject, “how are your classes going Ruby? You’ve only got a week left until finals, right?”

“Yeah.” Ruby swallowed nervously, her mouth suddenly dry. “Finals, and Yang getting back.” She stared into her plate of cookies, unaware of whatever conversation was going on around her.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want Yang to come back. Being alone with Weiss and Blake in the dorm and in training was great, but it was also incomplete. The team just wasn’t whole without Yang around, for combat and training reasons, but also for personal reasons. Yang brought a lot of energy into the team. She was the one who actually went outside for reasons other than food, classes, and interacting with someone from their specific selection of friends. Who’s energetic in all the ways that Ruby isn’t and more, and does a lot to brighten things up on a regular basis with cracked, sometimes inappropriate, jokes.

Ruby’s nerves were still frayed over Yang, enough to make her nervous about Yang’s return, but there were things about Yang’s presence that she had missed too. It really would be nice to have Yang back, and that honestly just might outweigh her nerves, or at least not be too bad, given that they’ll be able to be apart plenty, and she’ll have Blake and Weiss to lean on. In theory, it didn’t sound bad.

“I’m sure your parents must be proud of everything you’re doing.” Summer beamed as Ruby slowly zoned back into the conversation, having almost fallen asleep with her head resting comfortably on Weiss’ shoulder.

“Wha-” Blake coughed, milk dribbling down her chin as she cleared her airways, her entire body tense. “How do you know my parents? How do you even know who my parents are?”

“Team STRQ worked with them a lot during the Revolution, although most of that was classified, so Qrow is the only one who really ended up going down in history for it. And come on, you look so much like Kali did when she was about your age, it’s adorable!” Summer gently took the glass from Blake’s hand with a smile as she praised her.

“You haven’t... told them where I am or anything, right?” Blake’s ears pinned themselves against her head defensively as she held Weiss’ hand in a death grip that made xyr aura flare slightly.

“Well, no. We haven’t talked in years, really, they’re so busy over there and it can be so hard to get in touch with the roughshod CCT network they’ve got over there.” Summer’s concern leaked into her voice like a downpour distantly accompanied by dark storm clouds. “Did they do something they shouldn’t have?”

“No! It’s...” Blake sighed, her gaze fixed intently on her lap as her body seemed to shrink. “They wouldn’t be proud of what I’ve done.”

“Blake,” Tai leaned forward, resting his chin on the flat of his palm, “whatever it is you’ve done before you came to Beacon, I promise you that Raven and Qrow did worse, both before and after becoming hunters.”

“Bitch, I will hurt you.” Raven scowled and punched Tai’s arm, hard.

“You see, as long as Raven exists you really don’t need to feel guilty, because there’s always someone who’s worse and still manages to make up for it by being wonderful despite their mistakes.” Summer grinned before giving Raven a quick kiss on the cheek that was met with a rising blush.

“I’m not sure if that’s a really convincing argument or a complete and utter logical fallacy.” Blake squinted suspiciously. A moment of contemplation was all it took for the tension to drain from her posture as she threw her hands into the air. “Alright, whatever, just don’t tell them anything about me.”

“We won’t.” Tai nodded seriously. “It’ll be a complete information _Blake_ out.”

Blake, Weiss, and Raven all groaned in pain, their dreams of a pun-free day shattered. Ruby and Summer just laughed gleefully, having fully embraced their fate years ago.


End file.
